Innoncence and Sentiment
by danceswithfandom
Summary: Eames is a jock, Arthur is..well Arthur. The two are not friends, anymore. Until something changes. Some mention of child abuse, and unseen death set before story, and the rating is for language and lemons.
1. Bourbon Streets and Bicycles

_This is the other story I'm working on, I'm having a bit of a block with 'I'll Follow You' so this is to help during breaks...and also because I love High School AU's a worrying amount...it's an addiction. This will also be long as it seems I am incapable of shorts. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

_I reposted this, because I realised whilst writing the next chapter that I had made things to close together, for instance "Since the incident a month ago" I limited myself, so I changed it to make things fit better._

When people asked Eames why he hung out with Nash he didn't really have an answer. Dom was an easy one. He was down to earth, loyal and not afraid to kick Eames arse when he needed it, in addition he was also one of the best Quarterbacks Eames had ever seen.

Yusuf as well, was easy. They had been best mates since they were 13 when he'd caught Eames attempting to hot wire a car, and then proceeded to tell him he was doing it wrong and corrected him. They'd joined the football team together, and had engaged in an ill advised naked pier jump as initiation together.

Nash though...Nash was a twat.

Eames was again questioning why they hung out with him, when the four of them were smoking in their usual spot, the bike sheds behind the biology building.

"I'm just saying, that Ariadne chick would be so much hotter if she wasn't such a lesbian" Eames sighed, rubbing his temples, too tired for another one of Nash's rants.

"How do you know she's gay?" Dom questioned from his position lying on the grass, flicking ash up at the sky.

"She acts like it, hanging around the schools token fag"

"Shut up Nash" Dom replied without blinking, this was the agreed response to when Nash acted like a tosser, still Eames couldn't stop the stab of white hot anger whenever Nash started using those words.

"What? He is!" holding up his hands in surrender

Dom mirrored Eames and sighed "Again, how do you know?"

Nash smirked "I heard he and Brad fucked last year in the bathroom stalls"

"Y'know not everyone's as disgusting as you" Eames snapped looking down to avoid the look he knew would be written on Yusuf's face, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

"It's true! That's why everyone calls him 'The Slut'" Eames froze, it was the first time he'd heard anyone use that nickname for Arthur since the incident four months ago, he still hated it.

"By everyone you mean you and the football team" Eames cut back stabbing his cigarette out in the grass, pretending it was Nash's face.

Nash gawked "Why do you care? I thought you and 'slut boy' didn't get on?" Yusuf gave him a sidelong glance which he pointedly ignored.

"That doesn't mean I think you should mess with him. Just cause he can get laid and you can't" Eames retorted, Dom chuckled trying to, without much effort, cover it with a cough.

"What the fuck would you know" he said grabbing a pencil from his bag and chucking it at Eames head, which he easily dodged "are you in love with him or something?"

It was meant as a statement not a question but Eames still struggled to find a comeback, the few moments hesitation was all the fuel Nash needed as he opened his mouth-

"-I heard Arthur doesn't believe in love", Yusuf interjected, whatever Nash was about to say died on his lips as he turned his beady eyes, filled with interest to where Yusuf was sitting cross legged on the grass.

"What?" Yusuf frowned at the shocked looks from the three.

Eames smiled "Yusuf, you? Gossiping? I'm shocked!"

"Shut up Eames that's just what Ariadne told me" The hint of amusement in his voice showed there was no real bite to his insult.

"You talked to her?" Dom asked, a puzzled look crossing his features.

"I kind of have too since she's my lab partner and all" he mumbled uncomfortably.

Nash's face lit up in what could only be called glee "Come on man give us the dyke's dirt" he flinched at the look Yusuf gave him, the one that made even Eames's blood run cold, so much so that he found himself edging away.

"For the sake of you living till tomorrow I'm going to pretend you didn't say that" Now _that _had bite, Nash held Yusuf's gaze for a second before caving and looking nervously away.

"Go on Yusuf"

"Look we were just talking about the biology of love in class and Ari just mentioned she was worried about how closed off Arthur was about his feelings..."

"Gay."

"Shut up Nash" Dom and Eames replied in unison.

"...And then she said Arthur never wants to fall in love" Yusuf finished glancing around as he leaned back on his elbows.

Eames noticed a smirk forming on Nash's face and felt his stomach drop,

"Well gentlemen I think I smell a bet, eh Eames?" forget drop, Eames felt his stomach plummet to the centre of the earth.

"What are you on?" he asked unable to keep the shakiness out of his voice.

"Since Eames wants to be Arthur's big gay prince to his princess, I'll give you what you want I bet you can't make Arthur fall in love with you by the end of the month."

"Why would I agree to that?"

"Because if you win I'll delete that picture I took at Maddie's party" Eames could've sworn his heart literally stopped, Nash s_wore_ he'd deleted that photo! Before he knew it Yusuf was restraining him with a hand on his arm.

"What the fuck!" Eames was going to kill that greasy haired wanker!

"You know what, why don't I make this more interesting If you refuse or lose I'll have some fun with the photo copier" Ok now Nash was a dead man!

"You fucker!" Dom who was now aiding Yusuf in stopping Eames from kicking Nash looked at him puzzled and concerned.

"Eames, what's he talking about?" Great, he was so getting interrogated by Mal about this now. Taking a deep breath he was able to clear some of the red from his vision.

"Nothing" Nash had retreated a safe distance from Eames the coward, and now had the gall to smile smugly at Eames.

"Do we have a wager?"

"What's to stop me from breaking your phone?" he snarled

"The fact I have the photo saved on my computer just waiting for an opportunity like this"

"You greasy haired wanker!" He launches himself at Nash again, not getting very far thanks to Yusuf and Cobb grasping firmly to his arms.

"I'll take that as a yes" stamping out his cigarette. "Relax man, you don't have to even tell anyone about you 'dating' just get us a evidence, a recording or something proving you did it" just then the shrill ring of the bell rang out "Saved by the bell" he smirked "have fun Eames" he ran off waving.

"Piss off!" Eames yelled at his retreating back, he shrugs of Yusuf and Dom running a hand through his already mussed up hair.

"Why do we hang out with him?" He grabbed his bag angrily stuffing in his pack and lighter, he felt Yusuf's shadow behind him.

"Eames, you don't have to do it y'know..."

"Yeah I do"

"What's so bad about the photo?"

"Please just leave it Yusuf?" the other man hesitated but nevertheless nodded "fucking Nash" he muttered under his breath as the three of them headed off to third period, Eames striding up front with Yusuf and Dom giving him space behind. He was fuming, he knew Nash was a twat but this was a whole new low. He and Arthur hadn't spoken in years, not since...fuck how did this happen?

_Grrr Nash! He gets better I swear because I'm a sucker for character development, also I put the guys through a lot...I'm sorry in advance!_


	2. Radioactive

_Wow I've just finished writing the later chapters and this story has become a lot longer and darker than I expected. I'm sorry in advance for what I put our boys through, I'm mad at myself for the saddness._

"But it'll be fun"

That had been Ariadne's whole reasoning, in the middle of their lunch period sitting at their usual table to get him to go to their mutual friend Seth's party on Saturday.

"A bunch of Jocks and cheerleaders stumbling round the room groping people and thinking of reasons why they can kick my ass, what's not to like?" Arthur replied flatly, poking at the dubious neon yellow mush the cafeteria claimed was Mac n Cheese.

"Firstly it's Seth so those assholes won't be there; second I'd kick their butts if they tried to touch you!" Ariadne followed the statement up with a karate chop to her tuna salad sandwich.

"As funny as that would be to watch, I have to pass, Lily needs babysitting on Saturday" The advantages of babysitting a four year old was that Lily could still be bribed with stories and glitter.

"Your Aunts got another suitor?" Swiping a piece of radioactive macaroni of his plate, Arthur grimaced remembering the latest guy to show up at his aunts door with flowers.

"Yeah Toupee Terry, guy didn't even try and hide the fact he was wearing one, it looked like he had shoved it on in the dark."

Ari wrinkled her nose "Ew" as her theft of his lunch continued "So why don't me and Fischer come round and keep you company?"

"Fischer and I"

"I changed my mind" He felt the corners of his mouth twitch, Ari didn't mean it, or he'd get punched in the arm. She nudged his elbow and pointed at the door to where the football team were sauntering in.

"Check it out, the Jocks have graced us with their presence" Eames of course was at the front, his arm slung in a friendly way around Yusuf's shoulder whilst chatting to Dom, a lazy smile set on his face. He hated jocks.

"I wonder whose using the brain cell today?" Arthur bit as he stabbed at his lunch, looking away from the sight of those morons heading to talk to the rest of the populars.

"Hey they're not all bad" She blushed at Arthurs open mouth "What? Sure most of them are douchebag, but y'know Yusuf's actually really nice, Dom's pretty cute and you have to admit Eames is a little bit charming"

"Eames is a dick." Arthur stated pointedly, Ariadne just rolled her eyes, tucking a wispy brown curl behind her ear.

"He's not that bad"

"He's the football players running back, he's a dick "

"Is that a generalisation to all running backs or just Eames?" All football players at their school were dicks in Arthur's books, just Eames especially.

"Eames is a dick." Ariadne sighed in defeat and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Someday Arthur Reyes-Holmes you are going to tell me why you hate him so much" Arthur was saved from answering by the timely arrival of Fischer at their table, where Ariadne's attention was swiftly diverted.

"Hey Fischer do you think Jocks are dicks?"

"I think they're obsessed _with_ their dicks" He replied without blinking, Arthur smiled, trust Fishers dry humour to make him feel better. Ari wrinkled her nose again, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Thanks for that mental image Rob" he just nodded acknowledgement tucking into his bagel.

"You're welcome, why are we talking about this by the way?"

"Arthur thinks Eames is a dick"

"What does Arthur think about me?"Arthur was so surprised he choked on his water Ariadne ended up having to slap him on the back. Praying that the voice didn't belong to who he thought it was he turned to find himself craning his neck from the wall of muscle that was Eames.

"Hey Rob, Ari, Yusuf says 'hi' by the way" she blinked blushing slightly before poking Arthur under the table before he can the cutting remark he wanted.

"What do you want?" Eames smiled sheepishly.

"I...um...heard you tutored for English" Arthur knew his eyes were wide as Eames began to shift nervously.

"So?"

"I find myself failing at the moment and need a miracle worker"

"I'm busy... ow!" he received a sharp kick and a look from Ariadne "Fine ok" Eames grinned.

"Thanks Frodo I owe you one" Ari looked like she'd just won the lottery.

"Frodo!" She actually cackled, seriously. Eames flushed slightly again at Ariadne's laugh, it kind of freaked him out, seeing Eames so nervous.

"Whatever, when are you free?" The grin Eames gave him could only be called beaming.

"Thursday?"

"I run track on Thursday"

"Oh yeah, well how about tonight?"

"He's free!" Arthur elbowed her under the table in retaliation, Fischer just sighed exasperatedly at the two of them, whilst Eames just looked amused by the entire exchange.

"Cool, I'll pick you up after school, see you later Arthur" He turned back to his jock friends, receiving a high five from Nash and one of the cheerleaders looked back, glaring at Arthur and whispering something into Eames's ear, pushing her chest out. Arthur glared right back, he hated the populars.

"Did you just get asked to tutor your mortal enemy _and_ agree to do it?" Fischer frowned at him puzzled.

"It wasn't my idea somebody intervened" glaring at where Ariadne was innocently peeling an orange.

"Ask him if Yusuf remembers me" Betrayed because of a crush, the injustice.

"I 'm not talking to you" She just smiled at him.

"So me and Fischer at yours on Saturday?"

"Fischer and I"

"I knew that'd make him talk" Arthur rolled his eyes picking up his book bag.

"I'm going to lessons now bye" He turned to leave in time to hear Ariadne call out, loud enough so only the three of them could hear.

"Remember to practise safe sex tonight!" he opened the double doors hearing Fischer chuckling and Ariadne cackling behind him.


	3. We've Got Our Obsessions

_This part is a little bit of a love letter to Ian McEwan's 'Enduring Love' its actually a plot point as well I swear. _

All day he'd felt this sense crippling sense of dread, internally cursing Ariadne for getting putting him in this situation. He was now sat outside school, freezing his ass off waiting for Eames; the one person in the world Arthur did not want to be stuck in a confined space with.

It wasn't just the fact he didn't like Eames-at all-that was causing to freak out. It was also the sheer randomness of after four years of basically silence, aside from a few scathing remarks on each side for then Eames to have suddenly approached him like they were still on speaking terms.

He groaned and pressed his forehead against the wall, the more he thought about it the more stupid an idea it seemed to have ever agreed to help him. When it came down to it the only reason he'd ever accepted Eames was because of his Aunt, she was now having to work double shifts at the restaurant now their rent had gone up, if he brought in a little extra in addition to his part time job,

Ariadne had caught up with him before she got the bus, and had squeezed his hand in silent encouragement.

"If he tries anything 'Jock Like'" Translation make fun of him for the incident last month "Just walk out, and call me afterwards"

"I'll be fine" she had just kissed him gently on the cheek, and ran off smiling and waving at him.

Out there in the cold, on his own, Arthur had the brief thought that he could just walk away, he didn't have to do this for Eames, he didn't owe him anything. But it was a childish thought, and Arthur wasn't a child anymore, he could be mature and spend _one hour _with Eames, and if Eames brought up last year like Ari said he could simply walk out.

He was thinking about this when a tap on the shoulder made him jump out of his skin. A hand on his shoulder stopped him from falling, he turned to find that Eames was behind him, an amused expression on his face (Really Arthur was beginning to think this was the only one he had).

"Sorry darling, didn't mean to frighten you, but you were off in another world then"

_Darling!_ "Don't call me that" he snapped frowning as Eames's reacted like Arthur had said something funny. He chuckled, removing the hand from Arthur's shoulder and gesturing towards the passenger door.

When he was halfway there he heard Eames say "Whatever you say love!" and quickly dive into the driver's seat. Arthur grumbled something about air head jock's who couldn't understand instructions as he got into the Eames's beat up old Chevy.

Eames started the car and Arthur tightened his arms around himself, not from the cold but because, Eames seemed even bigger packed into the small car and Arthurs reaction was to lean as far into the car door as he could manage. Eames must've noticed this and rolled his eyes.

"Relax I'm not going to do anything, your helping me"

He snorted "Forgive me if I don't trust your word Eames" Something akin to hurt crossed his features as his focus went back to driving the car. He sighed and Arthur stiffened, waiting for the inevitable punch that usually followed when he talked this way too the monkeys.

"Look Arthur, I don't want to fight with you, truth is I really need your help and I think if we could try to get along it would make the time bearable right?"

"Why me though?" It was the question Arthur had been asking himself all afternoon "there are plenty of good tutors at and around the school, why pick me if it wasn't because you wanted to beat me up or something?"

Eames sighed again and looked at Arthur sincerely "Because I know you, I know you're going to get my grade up because that's who you are; it's why you're the only one I trust to do it"

"You don't know me anymore" He shifted uncomfortably, looking out of the window, Eames doesn't say anything. The next few minutes passes in silence until Arthur notices the where their heading.

"You're going the wrong way" Eames looked over at him perplexed,

"You live on Freemont Street right" Arthur shook his head, "I used to live there, now I'm on the Planet Estate" Eames still looks confused.

"No way!" Arthur just nods "How long have you been there?"

"Four years" he mumbled.

Eames looked sad when Arthur turned towards him "Four years" he mutters "How could I have not known you'd moved"

"No reason you should, we don't really talk much anymore" he murmured tucking his chin deeper into his scarf. Eames made a noise that sounded like a cheerless confirmation.

"Can we please just call a truce, at least for now?" He looked tired when Arthur looked up again, dark shadows that Arthur hadn't noticed at lunch "This whole thing is going to be a lot more pleasant for us both if we do" he was right; Arthur knew he was and his stubbornness caved to logic.

He nodded "Ok" Eames smiled turning his full attention back to the road and turning the radio on.

Arthur learned a couple of new things about Eames on the short drive to his house, one Eames could not sing and two that fact didn't seem to deter him as he sang at the top of his lungs the minute 'Zombie' by The Cranberries came on.

By the time they pulled outside Arthur's flat he felt the corners of his mouth twitch at Eames's enthusiastic singing. On the walk up the stairwell-The lift had been broken since 2003-Eames'enthusiasm wouldn't let up, babbling on at Arthur about everything that seemed to pop in his mind.

He was different than Arthur had envisioned him, and similar, he was almost exactly like how he was when they were kids, a few more edges but mostly the same. Arthur thought he would try and be cool and talk to him only when necessary to protect his reputation, but here he was a lot like Arthur remembered him from three years ago.

Only when they reached apartment 4B did he pause for some kind of breath, Arthur blushed a little as he let Eames inside, the flat was empty as Lily had ballet on Mondays and his Aunt made sure she always came and watched, not to mention it was someone-or-others birthday today. But it meant Lily's toys were strewn everywhere and his there were multi-coloured splotches on the wall where his Aunt got a little too worked up whilst painting.

Their flat was small and a little dank, smaller house they'd lived in before Lily had been born. But it was Arthur's favourite place in the world, he just wasn't sure Eames would feel the same way.

"This is where you live?"

Arthur bristled, a conditioned reaction "Yeah, so what?"

"It's brilliant, so...warm"

"Yeah that's because our heating works" Eames bitchfaced him for that

"I _meant_ that it feels, homey, well loved, like there's a real family or something here" Arthur didn't know how to respond to that, he instead gestured Eames down the little hallway through the door on the left to the living room/kitchen. At the end of the house was Arthur's room and then his Aunt's and Lily's but he wasn't about to show Eames them.

One was of Arthur and Lily covered in paint, both their hands raised to shown the paint smiling, the other was of his Aunt and Lily's father standing in front of the Sphinx in Egypt, the one on the end was of Arthur, Lily, his Aunt as well as Ariadne and Robert huddled together round a makeshift tent they'd done in the living room drinking cocoa. All because Arthur had been too sick to go on the school camping trip, the five of them had decided to make their own little den.

There was only one photo of Arthur and his parents up there, Arthur as a baby, just born, his mom holding him in a hospital bed and gown, smiling at the camera with his dad's arms around them both, that one hurt to look at. He didn't remember a lot about them, they'd been killed in a plane crash when Arthur was five, but sometimes he would see a woman who would remind him of his mother, or some kid learning to ride his bike with his dad and he would get this ache in his chest.

Alex and Maisy had done their best though; it couldn't have been easy for them to take on a kid just after they'd gotten married. Maisy had never tried to replace his mum and Alex had never tried to be his dad, they were for Arthur whatever he needed at the time, they'd been a family until Alex died when his Aunt had been six months pregnant, then they made a new family. Now Arthur was for Lily whatever she needed, a father, brother or uncle figure, he'd make sure she never felt like she was missing out.

There was one photo Eames had yet to notice, he glanced at it quickly a small frown crossing his face before Arthur reached across and slammed it down. The movement caused Eames to flinch back; he glanced guilty at Arthur, knowing he'd been caught.

"Let's do some work shall we" not waiting for a reply, he walked over to the little wooden dinner table and dumped his bag on top. Eames crossed the room slowly, and sat down next to Arthur.

"Whatever you say Darling" some of the teasing was missing from his tone, replaced by something Arthur couldn't quite put his finger on, he chose not to dwell on it.

The picture that Arthur had so hastily slammed down had been of him and Eames when they were six; they two had been out playing in the park, when Arthur had tripped chasing Eames and fallen flat in some of the mud. After seeing Arthur looking upset, Eames had jumped in with him and smeared mud all over his face.

"Now we match" He said smiling brightly, his Aunt's voice caused them to turn and at the sight of the shutter Eames had thrown his arms around Arthur's shoulders from where he'd been sitting behind him and grinned at the camera. Arthur had looked bewildered but was smiling happily. That one also hurt to look at, but his Aunt refused to take any of them down claiming, the past was what makes people who they are, memories were to be treasured, not forgotten.

"So how much of the reading list have you gone through?" Eames blinked, eyes wide like an owl.

"Reading list?"

"You're kidding right?" Eames flushed with embarrassment.

"I find reading a little difficult" Arthur narrowed his eyes suspiciously, passing across the schools copy of 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwen.

"Read the first paragraph" Eames nodded shyly, he thumbed the book for a moment before he dipped into his black faded bag and pulled out...a glasses case? Upon opening the case he quickly slipped the glasses on, refusing to look at Arthur, face red.

"You were glasses" he says softly, Eames coughs uncomfortably

"'fraid so Darling" he said fidgeting, Arthur was stunned, the glasses made Eames look so much softer, more vulnerable. He was drawn to the older boy's eyes, the glasses enhanced them making the greeny grey bright and big, his cheekbones seemed smaller, his usual cocky stance replaced by the shyness Arthur had seen briefly earlier.

Eames''s lips though were still as obscene as before, large and full and...That's when Arthur realised he'd been staring at Eames's lips and those kinds of thoughts were not acceptable, unfortunately Eames had caught his staring and the stance was back a smirk tugging at that mouth.

"See something you like Darling?" Arthur scoffed hiding his embarrassment.

"In your dreams Eames" Eames smiled the glasses going a little higher on his nose as his face scrunched.

"Darling you rhymed that's adorable" Arthur kicked him under the table and made Eames read the first chapter in silence as punishment.

"So what, it starts with a bloke falling from a balloon I don't understand your 'deep analysis'" Arthur sighed, they'd been at this for a few minutes now.

"It's about the animalistic nature in all of us that drives us to survive, makes us want to live" Eames wrinkled his nose.

"It's selfish though"

"That's human nature"

"Not in everyone, sometimes one person can be a selfish git whilst another can be the most giving person you'll ever meet"

"When it comes down to it Eames everyone has the same biology"

"But if we all thought like that we'd all have bloody great big trust issues"

"All of us usually do" he muttered

"Look, these first few chapters aren't just important for the red balloon, it's also where Jed sees Joe for the first time and he falls in love" Eames frowned.

"Oh yeah, he goes all nutty over him right?"

"Exactly, he has a condition called De Clerambaults which is where a person falls in love with another and believes that the person loves them no matter what evidence to the contrary they're presented"

"Love is so complicated"

"This isn't love, this is obsession, like with obsessions the further away you are, the more you want it, the stronger your desire to possess"

"What I meant is that it takes so many different forms, not just the positive stuff like romance, but the negative jealousy, envy, obsession like you said"

"Exactly, the darker side of love which is what we're studying. Love can take a darker side than what we see normally, it can be about control" Eames face darkened at that, fist's clenching suddenly and eyes going hard.

"Yeah" Arthur shifted uncomfortably, what had he been thinking using that phrase? The darker side of love was something Eames was no stranger to already, he hoped all their books stayed off one particular subject he thought as he watched Eames warily. He recovered quickly though, once he noticed Arthur's stance he brightened and changed the subject.

"But doesn't mean its all crap right" "I mean there's good bits as well as bad"

"Yeah but unfortunately for you that's not what we're studying" Eames smiled at Arthur suddenly, taking him by surprise.

"What are you smiling about?"

"I forgot how much fun it is debating with you" he leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head.

"Yeah well I hope your taking notes on this" the other boy grinned, leaning forward to pick up his pen and jot a few sentences down.

"Happy?" He looked up at Arthur through his lashes, he nodded tersely.

"Keep going, we've got a lot more to cover" they carried on working, finding a rhythm, Arthur would discuss a theme and then he and Eames would discuss it. It worked out that usually Arthur became the pessimist, and Eames the optimist. They lost track of time for a while until the door closing alerted Arthur that Aunt's and Lily were home, with a start he realised that he and Eames had been working for over two hours.

_Thank you guys so much for the lovely reviews its such a motivator to know people are liking this story, next parts mostly written so I'll update soon._


	4. Posed To Be Somethin'

_Ok, once again I'm a little nervous with my OC's, but I have to admit I love Lily, she's like the completely fluffy part of this story._

"Arthur! We're back" his Aunt called out, as Lily came barrelling into the room and Arthur suddenly really glad he'd turned round in his chair as she flung herself onto his lap. Long blonde hair tied up in a neat little bow, her sugar-plum pink tutu tickling Arthur's arms and her wand with the yellow plastic star on the top digging into his side. His Aunt followed through the door, pushing her fiery red curls out of her eyes, her mouth forming a small 'O' of surprise when she spotted Eames who stood up sheepishly.

"Hello Mrs. Reyes-Holmes"

To her credit, she recovered quickly, smiling at Eames warmly.

"Eames, I love the fact you're so polite and British but please call me Maisy, I'm not ready to admit I'm old" Eames face lit up and he winked cheekily at her reply.

"You're far too lovely to be old" his aunt laughed

"That accent makes you too charming for your own good" Arthur remember this banter from when they'd been kids, it was odd how easily they seemed to slip back into this.

At this point the little bundle wriggled in his lap, as Lily removed her face from where it had been snuggled into Arthur's shoulder, to blink her wide blue eyes at Eames.

"Hi there" Eames gave her his best charming smile, one that Arthur had seen when he'd been trying to talk his way out of detention.

Lily hoped off his lap and shyly looked at the floor, hands clasped behind her back, Eames bent down till he was the same height as her.

"You must be Lily" he put his hand out "My names Eames" She looked a little unsure, glancing between Arthur and Eames' hand, before shaking it.

"Are you a friend of Uncle Artie's?" Eames' eyes crinkled

"I hope to be" Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his seat and told himself that warm he felt was loathing.

"Ok then, you can colour with me whenever you want" she beamed and threw her arms around Eames in a hug, his Aunt watched with a fond and amused look on her face.

"My fairy queen I would be delighted to colour with you" she giggled, swishing her wand.  
"I like you, you can be my one of my Knights" Eames kneeled down on one knee, bowing his head theatrically.

"It would be an honour" The other two laughed and even Arthur couldn't hold back a chuckle, he'd forgotten how funny Eames could be. Lily put her wand on his shoulder.

"I name you Sir Eames" the newly knighted man stood up with flourish, bowing his head again hand crossed to his shoulder.

"I will do as you command, my fair lady, and colour with you whenever you want"

"But not tonight baby" Lily pouted slightly as her mother came over and picked her up, the little girl immediately resting her head on her shoulder, her eyes drooped and she stuck her thumb in her mouth.

"But I didn't give Artie his goodnight kiss" she muttered sleepily, all previous hyperness rapidly leaving her as she huddled into the shoulder. His Aunt rolled her eyes smiling before bending down, allowing Lily to lean across and place soft kiss on Arthur's cheek.

Arthur shied away from most cute things, but he had to admit Lily completely melted his defences as he smiled at the now dozing face of his niece. Her mother crossed the room to take Lily to her bed, humming quietly to her sleeping form.

He chanced a glance at Eames, ready for the flurry of insults that he would expect from a jock at seeing Arthur being kissed by his niece. Instead Eames' face was almost unreadable, he looked after Lily and her mother then around the flat, a flash of longing crossed his features, Arthur forgot this type of thing was probably something he'd never experienced.

All because of Eames dad. The bastard. Or he should say it was because of Eames' dad, the man had passed away over six years ago, and good riddance and have a nice trip to hell were Arthurs thoughts on that subject.

"So-" Eames disrupted that train of thought "Your cousin is completely adorable" the comment made Arthur smile.

"Yeah she is" Eames still had the longing look on his face, but it was slowly being replaced with the usual cocky mask.

"Well if I'm a knight I'm going to need a damsel in distress, fancy volunteering?" he winked

"Don't even think about it" the smirk didn't fall

"Your picturing me in a dress right now aren't you?" the look on Eames' face answered Arthur immediately.

"Perv" he threw one of the papers at Eames, who laughed, catching them before they fluttered to the ground, he muttered something under his breath, obviously not intending Arthur to hear. It sounded a lot like _'Only for you Darling'._

And then Arthur was internally panicking again, what the hell was he doing?! This was Eames! Eames! Who up to only four hours ago Arthur had nothing but distain and loathing for, the person he hated above all else, and now they were talking as if they were friends again. No way.  
Eames seemed to notice the change in Arthur's mood, and made to stand up, picking up his bag and reaching for his wallet.

"So how much do you want per lesson?"

"Its $10 per hour" putting on his stony face-or as Ariadne called it his 'bitch face'-on and making his voice cool and distant. If Eames noticed the change in treatment he didn't comment, nodding solemnly before handing Arthur the money.

They stood a little awkwardly in silence for a moment, Eames obviously searching for something to say and Arthur determined not to help him out. Thankfully this was the moment his Aunt breezed back into the room, heading straight for the little open kitchen.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" He looked conflicted from a moment before shaking her head.  
"Thank you for the offer, but I've got a least a dozen essay's I've been lazy and put off, 's why I'm so glad Arthur's around" Arthur's face heated it up but he hid it with a scowl.

"Make sure you've read and made notes up to chapter 5, and go through everything we talked about today" the older boy nodded, he almost looked, excited?

"Arthur'll see you out" She had mischief in her eyes, and Arthur was immediately suspicious.

"Come on" he pulled at the sleeve of Eames' hoodie and got all the way out into the hall way before he realised what he was doing and pulled his hand back like it was on fire. It was a stupid habit he'd adopted when they were younger, Eames had always been so damn slow, but he hadn't done that in years.

Eames' expression was hard to decipher, it looked almost fond and Arthur immediately hated it. What right did Eames have to feel fond? After what he'd done! He opened the door with more force than was necessary, not saying a word as Eames stepped out, only as he was closing it did Eames' hand push the door open slightly.

"Same time next week?" he looked so hopeful, Arthur caved slightly.

"You need my help before next week, I'm free on Friday we can do more then" the other boy removed his hand from the door, trying, badly to hide his grin.

"Cheers mate" then he was walking down to the elevator, disappearing out of sight

"So" he could feel his Aunt's eyes at the back of his head "Eames is back?" He turned to find her leaning against their doorways, eyebrows cocked.

"I'm just tutoring him, he is in no way, shape or form, back" he spoke with venom,

"So..." he could feel his Aunt's eyes on the back of his head "...Eames is back?" she asked deliberately unsubtle. He turned around to see where leaning on the door frame, arms folded, her expression unreadable.

"I'm just tutoring him" he refused to look at her as he took a swig of orange juice from the carton, she smiled "You'll give Lily bad habits".

"I thought that's what uncle's were supposed to do" her eyes shone with amusement before she walked over and dumped herself on their rough leather (at least they liked to think it was leather) sofa.

"Don't change the subject" she patted the seat next to her, knowing what was coming was inevitable he sat down gingerly beside her, and still avoided her gaze, preferring to stare at the small patch of mould on their wall.

"Now as far as I knew Eames was still, 'Idiotic douchebag' 'Moron' 'Jock air head' 'Shite for brains'" Arthur winced, okay maybe the last one had been a little harsh, he also might've said it in front of Lily. In his defence he'd been very upset at the time!

He shrugged noncommittally, "He's paying me" instead of pushing; his Aunt knew that when Arthur clammed up, he wouldn't talk. She got up and started putting the kettle on, squeezing his knee before she went "Stick The Real Housewives on would you" at Arthur's rolled eyes she laughed, high and happy "Don't even pretend you don't love it" he did, but he'd never let her know that, she and Ariadne would never let him live it down.

She brought the tea back over as he was getting the recording up, the two settled down on the sofa as the housewives of Atlanta began their next event. His Aunt sat legs tucked underneath her, even though it gave her pins and needles she refused to sit any other way, it was one of her many quirks.

He loved this apartment, it was the smallest place he'd lived in but it just felt like home, he couldn't imagine life beyond this; his Aunt Maisy and Lily. A time when he wouldn't wake up to Lily picking the 'icky non-marshmallow' pieces out of her cereal, when the two of them wouldn't have to bounce on his Aunt's bed to get her to wake up in the mornings, when he wouldn't walk Lily to play group when his Aunt had to work earlier than usual, her hand clinging to his as she did her best to be grown up and walk big grown up steps, her little legs working extra hard to keep up with Arthur, a stubborn frown splayed on her face.

Next year. That was a long ways off and as he felt his eyes lids droop as Kimberly Walsh was swung high on the dance floor, he felt all his problems about Eames, the future and everything fade away as he concentrated on this moment alone and the happiness it filled with.

_Thanks for reviewing!_


	5. Round and Round

_Ahh flashbacks so much fun imagining kiddie Arthur and Eames 3 _

_Twelve Years Ago_

Arthur was sat on the edge of the playground, watching everyone else having fun on the seesaw or sliding or swinging. He sat on one of the uncomfortable benches, all because the mean teacher said he couldn't play with his cast on.

It was all Adam's fault: he'd sworn that if you jumped off the monkey bars and flapped your wings hard enough you could fly, straight up into the clouds. His dad used to fly; Arthur had just wanted to be like him. It was all going really well, until he ended up faced down in the sandpit. Mary Lewis screeching in her high little girly voice that he was dead.

He'd been puzzled as he hadn't felt dead – he didn't think dead people ended up with a mouthful of sand and a pain in their left arm.

Adam had been told not to tell stories like that again, and now Arthur wouldn't play with him. Adam had been his only friend so it might be best he couldn't play, if he didn't have any one to play with.

"Cool cast" a weird voice piqued out. Arthur had to squint because the person was standing in the sun, very annoying.

"Thanks" he mumbled cautiously. The voice which belonged to a boy Arthur's age with a scruffy mop of brown hair and a very orange t shirt - like the pumpkins they carved at Halloween...or Aunt Maisy's hair - plonked down next to him on the bench.

"Can I sign it?"

Arthur surprised, nodded. The boy uncapped a pen, scribbling a quick message on the purple cast. He had to bend his arm and neck weird to read it, hoping it wasn't something mean.

_Get better soon Frodo - Eames xx_

"What do the x's mean?"

Eames shrugged. "Dunno, my mum puts them on at the end of her messages"

Arthur frowned. "What's up with your voice? What's a Frodo? And what name kind of a name is Eames"

The other boy grinned. "I'm from Britain, my family just moved here. I called you Frodo because you look like how I imagine a character from 'Lord of the Rings' would look; that's the book my mum's reading to me, and also I don't know your name and Eames is my last name 'cause my first names silly." Eames wrinkled his nose at the last part before turning his big eyes back to Arthur "So what's your name?"

Arthur stared at Eames from a minute, mouth a little open. Eames nudged his foot with his own.

"This is the part where you say your name, or maybe it really is Frodo?".

The dark-haired boy blinked, coming back to himself. "It's um A...Arthur" he stammered out. Eames' smile brightened.

"You're weird Arthur, I like you. Want a Yum Yum?"

Arthur held his hand out, working automatically before he caught up with what Eames had said.

"I'm weird!?" he squawked "You're the one whose got an odd voice and called Eames!".

The boy laughed loudly. "Exactly, we match. Wanna be best friends?"

Because Arthur was in complete shock (or as much shock as a six year old can be in), he simply shrugged, "Ok". He helped himself to more Yum Yums.

Eames was actually kind of cool, in a completely uncool way. He wouldn't stop talking. Where Arthur liked to be quiet, Eames filled the silence with chatter. He told Arthur about the book his mum was reading him, the new house they'd bought, their first trip to a Dairy Queen, his favourite colour –green - and what he thought of his new school.

Arthur listened to the other boy swinging his legs. Usually he found people who did nothing talked really annoying, but he liked Eames' accent and he made every story so interesting, face alight with interest. When the bell rang, Arthur found himself pouting, rather than feeling relieved.

Arthur hopped down from the bench, and started to walk towards the green doors. He got half way across the playground before he noticed Eames was a bit behind him, looking at the sky, slowly walking and swinging his arm.

He huffed, as he marched back towards Eames. He grabbed his wrist, turned and marched again towards the school, dragging the other boy along, muttering about how slow he was. Eames didn't stop looking round, so Arthur had to tug him along.

Eames had sat by him every day from then on. At the start of school he sought him out, yelling loudly, "Arthur!" across the playground. He sat with Arthur until his cast finally came off, talking a mile a minute about everything and anything. It reached the two week mark when Arthur, without thinking about it, described Eames, when his aunt asked, as his 'best friend'.

He never really saw Eames' parents. A car pulled up at the end of every day and Eames would rush to it as soon as he saw it. He never saw either of them waiting by the wall with the other parents, they never came to any school events, even parents evening. Eames didn't talk about his home life much either, for all Arthur knew, Eames was being raised by cats.

_Thanks so much for reviewing and following :D _


	6. Got a Tendency to Bring a Man Down

_I can only apologise for the delay, I've been recovering from PTED (Post Trumatic Exam Disorder) and I realised I'd boxed myself in with this a bit so I'm in the process of tunelling my way out. Thank you for reviewing and I'm so sorry about the long update time._

Over breakfast the next morning Lily couldn't stop gushing to Arthur about her latest knight (her collection as it stands now contained Ariadne, Rob, Arthur and their mailman), and asked Arthur continually when Eames was next coming over. She bounced up and down in excitement when he told her; Eames was coming over tonight, to _work_.

She pouted at the last one, his Aunt pulled her coat on and picked up her hand bag.

"Right, I get off at three and then I'm back on at eight, you're ok to watch Lily right?" he nodded "There's some money on the side for takeout or there's still some Chilli from a couple of nights ago that just needs reheating"

"Got it" he mumbled through his cereal.

"We'll see you later" She called behind her shoulder, Lily quickly scampered back to Arthur and put a kiss on his cheek before running back to her mother slotting her hand in hers.

He got to the bus stop to find Ariadne already waiting for him, puffed up in her big purple marshmallow coat. When she saw him she waved cheerily, he took a seat beside her, rubbing his hands against the October cold.

To her credit she waited until at least hello before rushing out "So how was it then?"

"It was fine, I attempted to teach him, he surprisingly picked it up fast for a monkey, then he left" She glared at him

"You are terrible at being a gossip, that's not what I meant" he shrugged.

"That's all that happened, I mean I'm despairing cause the guy has barely read any of the work and he debates every single point, but he did listen to me and seemed to remember everything" Ariadne looked at him quizzically

"So he didn't make a comment...y'know..." she trailed off. He stiffened slightly and shook his head.

"No. We just worked and he met Lily, she knighted him, nothing outrageous" this had the desired effect of distracting the smaller girl as she cooed at the thought of Eames being a knight, laughing loudly when he mentioned the colouring obligation that Eames now had on him as their bus pulled in.

Ariadne tactfully didn't ask about the tutoring time again, instead she gushed to Arthur about her new favourite band 'Imagine Dragons' and how they were '_so brilliant!' _and Arthur just '_had to listen to them!'_. By the time they arrived at school Ari was well and truly distracted and Arthur had relaxed again.

This lasted until the first bell, his first lesson was French with Mrs. Cobb, he loved French and Mrs. Cobb was an amazing teacher, but the lesson was always hell. Arthur was reminded of this when he waved goodbye to Ariadne and entered his classroom. The minute he did, a group of girls in the corner looked over and started giggling and whispering, not caring they were loud enough for Arthur to hear. Eyes burned into his head as he walked to his seat, refusing to show any emotion and give them a reaction.

When he sat down though a voice Arthur knew all too well called out "Careful guys don't get too close you might catch something"

Arthur didn't turn round to face Marco who he knew from experience would have a cruel smirk on his face, it was fine, he just had to put up with this until Mrs. Cobb came, then he shut up, mostly. A kick to his calf momentarily broke his composure as he hissed in pain, he felt rather than saw the looming presence of Marco behind him as he moved closer to Arthur, so he was almost whispering in his ear.

"You better watch out 'Arthur Cocksuker' there's plenty more where that came from" Arthur flinched at his nickname but otherwise didn't react other than tightening his fists under the table, if he retaliated it was worse, he just wish Mal would hurry.

Like she'd heard him silently pray, she came hurrying in, books and paper haphazardly clutched to her chest.

"Marco Ballaconi, unless you are studying the fabric of Arthur's – quite lovely may I say sweater – I suggest you sit back in your seat" He could practically feel the other boy flush as he obeyed her, Arthur smiled quietly to himself, Mrs. Cobb was his favourite teacher.

He knew however that this defiantly wasn't over, Marco had been embarrassed, Arthur would pay for that, but for now he basked in the minor victory. Mrs. Cobb set them some work and asked Arthur to hand out some sheets; he ignored with a passive face the looks and sniggers from the other students, and passed one after the other. He'd almost finished when he tripped over something, he hit the floor with a loud crack, pain shooting up his elbow and was met with a loud chorus of laughter around the room.

"Marco!" the teachers voice snapped, Arthur looked at the other boy who up until that point had indeed, been smirking at Arthur, silently warning him, but at the sound of Mrs. Cobb's voice he changed looking completely innocent.

"He tripped Miss, it's got nothing to do with me, you know how clumsy he can be sometimes" Arthur quickly picked himself up, rubbing his sore elbow, cheeks slightly red as the woman narrowed her eyes at Marco.

"Yes it's odd how many times he 'trips' isn't it?" Marco shrugged grinning, friends around him snickered at Arthur. Mrs. Cobb turned her eyes on him.

"Arthur did you trip?" knowing the repercussions that would occur if he ever dared tell on them, he didn't even hesitate before nodding

"Yeah Miss, I just tripped over, my fault" he said emotionlessly, she looked at him so sadly that he couldn't stand it, picking up the rest of the papers and turning away to sit down again. He stared pointedly out of the window. The lesson picked up from there, Arthur tried to ignore when Marco whispered something about how he was "such as good bitch, doing what he was told" and put his head down, concentrating on the words in front of him.

Apart from that the lesson continued as normal for Arthur, his chair was kicked a couple more time and a couple of people coughed 'slut' but Mrs. Cobb's lessons were the best, a lot of people respected her, and knew that she had Arthur's back and a no tolerance bullying policy in her room. She couldn't see everything though.

Arthur had actually been surprised at how quickly everyone had turned on him once the rumour had started, he'd never been popular, but he hadn't been unpopular, he had been basically neutral with a good friend base within track and school, which included Ari and Rob. He never discussed the fact he was gay with any of his friends because he knew what kind of reaction he'd get, a guy who'd come out in freshmen year had been beaten so badly he was to sacred to go to any school, so Arthur kept it too himself.

But one night at the movies meeting up with friends, one of the guys from track had brought along Greg, he was smart and funny and Arthur was instantly charmed. They went out a couple of times, neither of them being publically out meant their dates had to be restricted, but nevertheless they had fun.

Then on their third date, Arthur had kissed him in the middle of the street without thinking, word spread fast from there, someone from school had seen and told other people they'd seen Arthur kissing a guy, then it was giving a guy a hand job, then blow job, then that they were fucking. He's not even sure how it got so large so quickly, all he knew was that when he came into school after the long weekend, everybody knew. Everyone apart from Ari, Rob and a couple of track guys abandoned Arthur, and when he'd walked into the cafeteria that day Marco and the other jocks and cheerleaders had walked up to Arthur and declared he couldn't come in here anymore, they didn't want to catch something from his faggot ass. The rest of the school sitting in the lunch room, people who didn't know him, but worse, people who did laughed when someone had loudly called out 'slut!'.

Eames though, Eames had just stood there. He'd never told Ari that because she'd have gone mental at Eames and he just hadn't been able to deal with that then. They hadn't been friends then really for over three years since Eames had abruptly cut their friendship off for reasons Arthur didn't like thinking about, but still they'd been best friends for so long and he'd done _nothing_. He'd stood there with the other populars, refusing to look at Arthur, he just did, nothing; that cut more than anything. He'd held in tears until he'd gotten out of that room and reached the toilets, where he'd sobbed, shaking for hours, unable to move until Rob had gone in to find him.

Last he'd heard, Greg had been shipped off to some Army school, he hadn't heard from him since. Now everyday he was the subject of bullies and snickers, all of which he'd ignored, he'd learned how nasty things could get if he fought back. Every new bruise he would explain away or hide from his family, his Aunt had enough to worry about raising Lily and himself on a shoestring budget.

With Rob and Ari's help he had managed to go back into the cafeteria about three months after it had happened, but they sat right by the doors, concealed by a couple of plastic plants, hidden – mostly – from view, although apparently Eames knew where he was sat, despite his best efforts.

When the bell rang he waited a few minutes before standing up, so people could file out without doing anything to him. Still when he finally stood up, someone deliberately bumped into his shoulder, causing him to stumble, Marco and his two friends walked past sneering. He pushed down the hot flush of embarrassment and anger and grabbed his bag, making to walk out of the class.

"Arthur would you mind waiting a minute?" Mrs. Cobb's voice stopped him for a moment

"_Bonjour Arthur_" He smiled fondly at the French. He walked back and sat on the table opposite her desk.

_"Bonjour Mademoiselle" _She grinned back at him, this had become a little ritual of theirs, Mrs. Cobb loved talking in her native tongue and Arthur loved French, so they would engage in their own private conversation.

"_Comment va la maison?"_ (How's home?)

"_Bon, soirée des parents de Lily va venir bientôt, elle est tellement excitée de montrer son travail à l'extérieur de ma tante._" (Good, Lily's parents evening's coming up soon, she's so excited to show her work off to my Aunt) the teacher chuckled

"_Est-ce que laisser aller de la baguette magique encore?"_ (Has she let go of the fairy wand yet?) he chuckled

_"Non, ni ma tante ou je peux la convaincre de le laisser aller"_ (No, neither my Aunt or I can talk her into letting it go) she smiled warmly at him

_"Et comment est-elle?_" (And how is she?)

"_Ma tante?" _(My Aunt?) Mrs. Cobb nodded "_Oui elle va bien, ramassé un couple de quarts de travail supplémentaires au travail, alors elle est un peu fatigué, mais nous gérons bien_" (Yeah she's fine, picked up a couple of extra shifts at work so she's a little tired but we manage fine) Mrs. Cobb leaned forward and Arthur knew what was coming.

"_Arthur tu vas bien?" _(Arthur, are you ok?) her voice was laced with concern, he squirmed uncomfortably and crossed his arms.

_"Oui, je vais bien, juste un peu stressé à cause du travail scolaire et que" _(Yes I'm fine, just a little stressed because of school work and that) she looked like she wanted to ask more but noted his tense stance

"_Eh bien, vous savez où je suis, si vous avez besoin d'aide_" (Well you know where I am if you ever need help) he nodded despite himself, giving her a grateful smile.

"_Je fais_ _Mademoiselle, je vous remercie" _(I do Miss, thank you)

"_Pas de problème Arthur" _(No problem Arthur) She smiled and waved him off "You better hurry to your next lesson" he really wasn't in any rush, although History did mean sitting next to Rob with catty backchat to any comments made to him.

"I'll see you miss"

The rest of the day went by quickly and without much change, he got pushed into a few locker – his was now permanently spray painted with a variety of colourful words – Marco made his day hell as usual and the other teachers refused to step in on the name calling, tripping up, shoves, pokes, kicks and various other assaults that took place in their lessons. Not that he was bitter or anything.

By the time it got to last bell, Arthur was sighing in relief as he leaned on the outside wall of the school waiting for Eames. He was going to cut out of their session early he decided, he was exhausted and Eames' tune might've changed with a nights rest.

Once again he heard the horn blare behind him, only this time he didn't jump. He got in and closed the door; Eames gave him a smile as he settled in.

"Your here" Arthur frowned

"Of course why wouldn't I be?" Eames shrugged as he pulled out on the road

"Just surprised is all" He fumed at that, roughly pulling his seatbelt down.

"I take my jobs seriously, and while we're on this If you miss a homework deadline I set you, you're out" Eames looked taken aback

"Alright" Arthur turned away from the other boy, folded his hands and crowded into himself. The rest of the journey passed in a somewhat awkward silence as they pulled into the parking lot in front of Arthur's apartment.

His Aunt greeted them warmly when they came in; Lily ran over to Eames and giggled as he bowed at her. Arthur clenched his jaw tightly, hot hatred boiling in his stomach as he took the other boy who thought he was so familiar in his family just because he'd met Lily once.

His Aunt seemed to detect something wrong and ushered Lily out of the sitting room under the guise of going to play dress up with mommy's clothes.

"You alright Arthur?" he gritted his teeth and dumped his bag on the table with a thud.

"Yes god! Why is that everyone's favourite question today?!" he exclaimed, Eames looked a little hurt, but so what that wasn't Arthur's problem.

"Let's just get this done" He sat down roughly, Eames gingerly followed suit.

The lesson was uncomfortable, every time Eames made any point, good or bad, Arthur tore it to pieces. Eames had read the chapters and made notes, but Arthur still found flaws in his work, he was very aware he was being a complete and utter dick, but what could he say it felt good to be the one dishing it for once, even if he did feel like crap about ten seconds after the high.

When it came time to end the lesson, Eames almost looked like a wounded soldier, shoulders slumped in defeat. Arthur did the same as last night, and walked him to the door, ready to slam it, just slightly. Before he could, however Eames sighed in the doorway and span round to face the other boy.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked, Arthur scowled.

"Apart from not doing what I asked you to do"

"I made notes!" Eames exclaimed.

"Not very good ones, this is going to be a lot more work than I thought, I don't know if I can manage this"

"You said you took your jobs very seriously" Eames retorted, accusation heavy in his voice.

"Yeah but I didn't say I performed miracles, that was you" Eames looked even more hurt now, Arthur refused to feel pity.

"Look Arthur" Eames began "I know in recent years we haven't gotten on" Arthur snorted

"That's an understatement!" his hand tensed on the door, itching to slam it in Eames' face "If I remember right it was you who ended our friendship, or do you not want to discuss the reasons" Eames paled at that, Arthur gave a humourless chuckle "thought so"

"Arthur, believe me I know I don't deserve even an ounce of your help after the way I've acted, I wouldn't dream of imposing if I didn't truly need your help"

"I know you said that before" Arthur snapped "but I don't know whether it's worth it" Eames racked a hand through his short, cropped hair.

"Please Arthur" he felt something in him soften, remembering yesterday where it was like nothing had been missing. But today Arthur remembered the gap between them, and it couldn't be filled by a couple of hours tutoring.

Eames seemed to read this in his face and sighed, he loged his foot in the door before Arthur could close it and scribbled something down on a paper which he then handed him.

"If you change your mind, here's my number just call or text or anything" Instead of crumpling it like his first impulse told him to do, he tucked it in his back pocket quickly. Eames gave him one final look before he removed his foot and walked away.

Arthur didn't slam the door, as much as he wanted to, he just couldn't. Instead he walked straight into his room and flopped onto the bed. Not a moment later his Aunt opened the door, a small frown knotting her brow.

"You were very impolite this evening Arthur" she came and sat on the end of his bed "I heard some of Eames' suggestions, they were good but you still shot him down, why?"

Arthur rolled onto his side so he wasn't facing her "We're not friends"

He heard her let out a sigh behind him "I don't know why, you used to be so close" he shrugged his shoulders "Arthur, I don't know what happened between the two of you because you never talk about it" he sensed the unsaid question but chose to ignore it, she carried on regardless "but maybe you should see if he's sincere, and if not I'll kick his ass myself" he smiled at the last part.

Submitting he turned round enough so his Aunts face was visible "I know you would" she laughed lightly, curls bobbing.

"Will you think about it please?" he hesitated "Say what you will, but I know a part of you was happy yesterday working with Eames"

He bristled "He's an idiot" she shook her head

"Give him a chance baby, just think it over" she squeezed his knee and left his room, shutting the door behind her.

He debated it in his head, before his Aunt's voice finally guilt tripped him enough so he picked up his phone and texted quickly to Eames.

_You better have decent notes next time. _

_Trust me, Arthur's anger is totally justified, as will be revealed in later chapters! _


	7. You've Got Me Feeling Like a Pantomime

_I'm so sorry this took so long to update, I'm about three weeks away from my A-levels and have been revising like mad for the last few weeks and I reached a major writing block whilst trying to right the next bit (Excuses, I know). Nevertheless finally it is done, apologies for any mistakes this is unbeta'd as I wanted to give it to you guys as quickly as possible!_

"OW!" he rubbed his arm, attempting to shield himself from another blow from Ariadne, who for such a tiny girl hit hard "What was that for?"

"Yusuf told me you were being a jerk to Eames" he frowned

"How does Yusuf know anything, was Eames bitching about me?" Damn that bastard "And since when did you care about Eames" the girl fumed

"He wasn't bitching about you, he told Yusuf in strict confidence that he was depressed because he was disappointing you so much" the small twinge of guilt that had been building ever since he'd practically slammed the door in Eames' face made itself known again. Then a thought occurred to him and he narrowed his eyes at Ari.

"How did Yusuf manage to tell you this in the space of last night to now?" a blush appeared on Ari's cheeks, as she suddenly became very interested in the piece of hair she was playing with.

"We might have been IMing for the last couple of days"

"Ari..."

"It's not like that it's for our Biology project!" he raised an eyebrow at her, "It is" she exclaimed, punching his arm again.

"Ow! Rob feel free to help at anytime"

"Ariadne stop hitting Arthur, you know the rules, nothing that could injure the car, when we stop then you can do what you please" Rob called back from the driver's seat, Rob was the only one of them to have a licence since Arthur couldn't afford the test and Ari's last instructor had a meltdown after her 'Inventive driving'. Despite his dad being fifthly rich, Rob didn't have a car yet his dad was saving it as a bride for Rob to get A's in their next exam, despite the fact the guy was already a straight A student with a brain the size of Manhattan was a fact that still confused Arthur. But it meant when his dad was away on business trips and Rob had access to his prized Mustang he would save Arthur and Ari from the bus and give them a lift...provided they not touch anything.

"Fine" she grumbled, settling down in her seat sulking.

"So" he smirked "Yusuf...?"

"Rob!"

"Arthur be nice or I will turn this car around! Or at least leave the two of you on the sidewalk"

"You wouldn't do that to us Rob, you love us too much!" Ari cooed, stretching forward

"I think you overestimate my feelings on you two" he deadpanned. Arthur chuckled and leaned forward too until he was draped behind the driver's seat, he and Ari invading Rob's 'personal bubble'.

"Rob that's the nicest thing you've ever said to us" he teased, the other boy huffed

"Kill me now" Arthur fell back onto his seat laughing, Ari flicked Rob's shoulder.

"Not until we get to school, this skirt wasn't made for wind like this" She sat back in her seat and looked round at Arthur again "Seriously though, why were you such a dick to him?" Arthur felt his good mood darken, tensing up.

"He had crap notes-"

"-Liar! Yusuf told me some of his notes, they were good, plus you've never been as bad to anybody else you've tutored!" he remained silent "Or was it just because it was Eames?" again he just stared straight ahead. Ariadne gave a sigh of frustration

"Look Arthur. Rob and I know that your sarcastic and stoic, we accept that and love you for it. But we're your friends, we just want to help but we can't if you don't talk to us" she shuffled closer "What happened with Eames?" he thought for a moment. Maybe it'd be nice to tell someone, anyone about him and Eames, but even though before this whole tutoring thing started they hadn't talked for over six years apart from barbs and insults, the memory of what happened still felt like an icy hand was reaching into his chest and trying to rip it open.

After a few moments of extended silence, Ari gave up. The car ride got a little awkward after that, when they arrived at school, Ari shot him a sad smile and got out quickly, just to make sure she wasn't angry, just upset. As Arthur was about to open the door, Rob voice surprised him

"She's right you know" he turned to face Arthur "We just want to help, we've all had dark stuff happen to us, trust me it lightens the load when you share it with someone" Arthur opened his mouth but Rob interrupted him

"You don't have to talk about it, but all we want to do is help, if it's bad we're not going to just ditch you, we're friends"

"I know" Arthur spoke quietly. Rob didn't do this kind of thing often. Ariande was straightforward and blunt telling Arthur outright if he was being an idiot, Rob was more quiet and diplomatic. He always liked Rob, having lost his own mother he knew that the last thing Arthur would want was pity or to be petted about his parents or Alex. "Thanks Rob" the other boy smiled, a small quirk of the mouth.

"Also I think you're looking at this Eames thing the wrong way" Arthur frowned

"What do you mean?"

"When my father's company was struggling because of his rivals, he merged with his most hated enemies company, the two became a power house and the rivals toppled in the face of this"

"But Rob, after all that happened didn't your father completely ruin his partner and leave him stone broke?" Rob made a noncommittal noise

"That's beside the point" he coughed "What I'm trying to say is you should look at this whole 'Eames' thing as an opportunity, compared to Marco Eames is built like a brick house, you think he'd cross you with Eames and by default Yusuf and Cobb behind you" He'd never thought about it like that

"But Marco has Nash and Davis?" Rob scoffed

"Nash is about as threatening as a butterfly made of clouds, and Davis doesn't have two brain cells to rub together. Trust me, with Eames behind you life could get a lot easier"

"So your saying I should use Eames as a body guard? Forget it I can take care of myself!" Eames hadn't protected him before, why would that change? once a coward. Rob sighed

"I know you can, I'm not saying as a body guard, more like a, deterrent. Think about it, people are less likely to even begin the bullying if they see you and Eames are hanging out again"

"We're not hanging out—"

"Arthur"

"Ok, ok I get where your coming from" when he thought about it, it did kind of make sense, he was perfectly capable of looking after himself and didn't need Eames to be his rescuer, but it would be nice if he got a little bit of a reprieve.

A knock on the glass made him jump "Are you guys coming?" Ariadne called impatiently, suspicion written over her face. The two got out of the car and headed towards the school, Ariadne in the middle looped her arms through theirs "What were you guys talking about?" she asked, eyes narrowed.

"We debating how someone so tiny can eat so much and hit so hard" Arthur swerved before a swift kick could reach his shin.

By the time they'd got in the bell had already rung for first period, Arthur and Ari waved goodbye to Rob heading into his advanced calculus class and continued chatting till they reached their History class. Mr Charles had just finished writing the first few notes on the board when they scuttled in, hurrying to their favorite seat by the window.

They sat down and Arthur began writing down the questions on the board and their answers, which Ariadne then preceded to copy from his paper. He nudged her elbow at one point causing her pen to shot across the page, she glared at him.

"You should really do your own questions" he teased, she poked him with the end of her pen

"I do them in my head, then look at yours to check I'm right!" she insisted, he rolled his eyes and went back to listening to the lesson. About ten minutes in, they were told to separate into threes, because of the odd number and the fact that Ari and he were social hermits they promptly formed a pair. Mr. Charles handed out the sheets and gave them an introduction to it.

"So write down in the sections provided, the reasons the Cold War ended" Mr Charles began "As we know there were several factors that contributed to the end of the Cold War, one in particular being popular protest from Communist countries and—"

"Sorry I'm, late sir" Eames puffed as he opened the door "Coach was giving us a talk" Mr. Charles nodded and pointed to the only available seat, which was conveniently- because the universe hated Arthur- in front of him and Ariadne. Eames caught Arthur's eye and tensed a little. Sheepishly, he made his way over to where they were, like he was approaching a wild animal. When he sat down giving them both a tentative smile, Ariadne immediately gave one back the betrayer, Arthur...might've scowled.

"Hey Eames" Ari chirped brightly, he looked a little relieved

"Hello Ariadne" he turned "Hi Arthur"

"Eames" he replied tonelessly, the tension was palpable. When Eames bent down to retrieve his books, Ariadne nudged him and mouthed "Be nice"

"So" Eames leaned back up "What did I miss?" Ari leaned forward

"Nothing much, in groups we've got to fill out these sheets on the end of the Cold War, and then debate a bit about it" she filled him in, pointing out page numbers, whilst Arthur sat watching them in silence. Eames looked tired, he noted, there were dark circles around his eyes and his shoulders were slightly slumped, not that. He was proven right when Eames gave a long yawn.

"Tired?" Ari asked a lilt of concern in her tone, Eames shot her a reassuring smile

"Just a late night" he rolled his shoulders "Y'know practise, school work and stuff like that" Arthur narrowed his eyes, they may not be friends anymore but he could still tell when Eames was hiding something.

"You shouldn't kill yourself over this stuff" Ari chastised, Arthur rolled his eyes muttering something about 'Mother Hen'.

"It's really nothing" Eames insisted "Just up had to make some extra notes last night" guilt twisted in Arthur's gut, Eames eyes were flicking to anything but Arthur. Ariadne looked between the two of them and cleared her throat

"I'm just going to talk to sir for a bit" Traitor! He thought as she left the two of them together. For a few minutes they just listened to the classroom chatter around them, Arthur too stubborn to begin mind still thinking over Rob's advice. Eames shuffled nervously.

"Arthur—"

"—Ariadne's right you shouldn't kill yourself over something like this" he could feel Eames' giving him a pointed look

"Someone said I'd better have good notes next time" This time Arthur did look at him, saw the flicker of humour behind his expression and softened slightly

"I'm sorry" Eames blinked for a moment

"Sorry, could you repeat that. I think Arthur Reyes-Holmes, you just apologised to me, clearly I'm hearing things" Arthur couldn't help the small smile that grew on his face

"Careful or I'll take it back" he threatened, the tension lifted slightly as Eames chuckled

"Oh no love, anything but that" he thwacked him lightly on the arm

"I was serious though. I'm sorry about the last time, I...had a bad day" Eames face darkened slightly at that.

"I can't even apologise enough for those twats" Arthur, not wanting to get into a discussion on that topic just waved it off

"We're getting off topic, anyway like I said, I'm sorry and your notes, may..um..not have been as bad as I said they were" Eames smiled the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly.

"It's fine Arthur" the smile turned into a grin "So does that mean you'll still tutor me"

"Of course, I've never failed yet and I'm not about to start with you" Eames lit up at that

"I run track tonight" he continued "But if you're free on Monday we can do some more work then?" Eames nodded eagerly

"Sounds great love" A comfortable silence settled between them, promptly broken by Ariadne who plonked back down in her seat and gave Arthur a look that roughly translated into 'You owe me'.

It was only after the lesson was over and he and Ariadne were walking to their next lesson that Eames had called him 'love' not once, but twice and he hadn't picked up on it.

_At last! I'm sorry again, I can't promise I'll be good about updates for the next couple of weeks cause of exams but I'll give it a go! Thanks so much for review, they really perk up my day! (Which mainly just consists of Fanficition reading and revising, because having a life is overrated...I imagine). Thanks guys!_


	8. They Won't See Me Run

_Strangely even though I'm not into Taylor Swift that much, her songs have become my soundtrack whilst writing this fic...weird...Anyways on with the next chapter!_

Arthur loved running track, it was simple, uncomplicated, once you got through the initial push the exhilaration made up for any strain. Ever since he was a kid he'd always tried to be better and faster, Ariadne called him a 'Maniac' because even when he wasn't running track he'd sometimes jog for a couple hours after school. He ran round the track a few times, staying back with the others before he started pushing himself. Their teacher called out instructions on the sidelines, blowing his whistle at every opportunity, it'd earned him the nickname Mr. McNittle the Whistle.

After a few more laps he stopped for a breather, feeling the welcome burn in his thighs. He jogged over to the water station, grabbing his bottle of water and taking a swig. Danny one of the other guys jogged over to join him "Hey Danny" he greeted, the other boy nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yo Arthur?" he asked

"Yeah" Danny grabbed a water and strode over to Arthur

"You friends with the guys from the football team now?" he muttered in a low whisper, Arthur chocked on his water.

"Yeah and I also wear pink tutu's and a sailor hat" Danny frowned

"That's weird, cause that guy, the British one...Eames I think is watching you with his friend" he pointed towards the bleachers, Arthur turned his head, and sure enough Eames and Yusuf were sitting up in the stands. Yusuf had the grace at least to look embarrassed when Arthur caught them, Eames just waved cheerily. Arthur growled and dashed over to the stands, Eames said something to Yusuf before moving down to meet Arthur.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, Eames gave him one of his shit-eating grins

"I haven't seen you run in forever love, I was curious" Arthur huffed in frustration

"Was the audience really necessary" he jerked his head in Yusuf's direction, Eames turned to his friend

"Oi Yusuf stop staring at Arthur you creeper!" Yusuf flailed, mouth opening like a fish in indignation

"Me?!" he exclaimed "You're the one who wouldn't shut up about coming to see Arthur, it was either this or chop my ears off!"

"Drama queen!" Eames yelled back, he turned back to Arthur leaning over the rail into Arthur's space, he glared up at the other boy, who just smirked back "Yusuf's always had a thing for girls in shorts" he winked.

Arthur rolled his eyes "God do you ever shut up?"

"Nah that'd be boring love" the way Eames was looking at him made him fidget "Would help if I borrowed one of the cheer-leading outfits?" he purred

Arthur's eyes went wide as he considered Eames in one of those (what Ariadne called) ridiculously skimpy cheer-leader costumes, then burst out laughing. Eames look taken aback, then smiled "What? Are you saying I couldn't pull off that outfit" he demanded. Arthur clutched his stomach, his stomach hurting from laughing so hard.

"Oh god! Please never do that" Eames grinned cheekily at him

"Can't promise anything love, you know how good I look in red" that had Arthur doubled over all over again.

"Reyes-Holmes!" the track coach called over "You can hang out with your friends as much as you want after practise, for now get your ass back over here and start running" Arthur wiped his eyes and gave the teacher a thumbs up

"Coming sir" he answered, he turned back to Eames "Alright, I guess if you wanna learn about a _real_ sport you can sit and watch"

"A real sport!" Eames spluttered "I'll have you know, football is the sport of kings Arthur!"

"Yeah, really kingly sport, getting your head bashed in for sport" he countered sarcastically

"You're just jealous 'cause we get sexier outfits" Arthur scoffed

"Yeah giant shoulder's, sexiest thing I can think of" Eames patted Arthur's own shoulder

"Your right Arthur" he said seriously "Now remember not to wiggle that ass of yours too much in those tiny shorts" Eames ducked and ran to avoid the blows from Arthur.

"Stop looking at my ass!" Arthur yelled at him

"I promise nothing!" Eames called over his shoulder and waved as he made his way back up to Yusuf. Arthur shook his head and ran back over to the others, who thankfully hadn't heard their exchange and didn't comment on Arthur's distinctly pink cheeks. God that guy was a piece of work.

(~)

Eames breathed a sigh of relief, he'd worried he'd pushed a bit to far with Arthur like last time, but the other boy seemed to react a little better. He watched Arthur run for a few more minutes, he really was very good, as soon as the coach said 'Go' he was off like a shot. He remembered when Arthur and he would play this game. Eames would dare him to run impossibly short times, and Arthur never once backed down. Pushing himself harder and harder a small frown of concentration on his face, till Eames had to tickle him to break him out of it.

He chuckled; Arthur still got that frown he noticed.

He was watching Arthur (and ok so sometimes his gaze slipped southward, but really the guy did have a great arse) so intently that he jumped a little in surprise when Yusuf put a hand on his arm.

"Eames we need to talk" that was never a good sentence coming from him, and that was his we need to talk **_now_**tone. Eames nodded and made to stand up. He glanced back one final time at Arthur, who was still running, slightly ahead of the others. Eames smiled, that was typical Arthur; had to be the best but didn't want to show off.

Yusuf got ahead of him and he followed the other boy down the steps, and round the back of the bleachers. Yusuf span round so quickly Eames almost bumped into the guy

"Ok what are you doing?" Eames blinked, confused

"Talking...to you?" Yusuf knocked him in the arm "Ow, I don't like this quiz" he pouted

"I mean what are you doing with Arthur? You're not seriously going to take Nash up on his bet" the silence was answer enough as Yusuf's jaw dropped.

"Are you fucking serious?!" he exclaimed

"Yusuf you don't know what he's got on me" he hurriedly explained

"What has he got on you?" Eames bit his lip but otherwise did nothing else "God you are such a stubborn ass!" he cried in frustration "Whatever he's got it better be goddamn fucking worth it because Arthur's gonna kill you when he finds out"

"Yusuf it's not all like that" he said softly, the other boy frowned

"What d'you mean?" Eames shrugged

"I mean, look I missed him ok! We were best friends for almost ten years for Christ's sake!"

"Yeah and then you were an idiot" Eames couldn't argue that

"Yes" he slumped, defeated "I was an idiot. But I maybe I want to try make things a little better and Nash's bet is the push to do it" Yusuf sighed and looked up at the heavens for strengths

"You have to find a way to deal with this man" he reasoned "Or someone's going to get hurt"

"I know" Eames muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets pouting. Yusuf rolled his eyes and walked over to his friend, grasping his shoulder again, this time friendly

"I just don't want this to end badly" Eames nodded, Yusuf was right, he needed a way to handle this

"Don't worry Yusuf I'll handle it" that was probably the biggest lie he'd ever believed.

_Ahhh nothing like a little bit a procrastination with my favourite boys ;) Thanks for reading and reviewing :D_


	9. Cover Up, Rain Down

_Time for another flashback!_

_10 years ago_

Arthur rolled over in his bed as the sound of taping against his window. Sleepily he heaved himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he walked over the window. Someone was throwing rocks at his window and he had a pretty good idea who it was. He yanked his window open to find Eames outside, arm poised to throw another shower of rocks.

"Eames!" he whispered loud as he could. The other boy dropped his handful of rocks and waved up at Arthur.

"Can I come up?" he asked, there was an edge to his voice that Arthur recognised, it's when Eames really needed him.

He nodded immediately "Let me unlock the door" Eames shook his head

"No worries" the boy than ran to the drain pipe that run up past Arthur's window and began to shimmy up.

"Eames!" he hissed "You're crazy!" Eames giggled in response

"I know but it's fun, like we're in a movie" he panted. Once he got level to the window Arthur stretched out a hand to him to help pull the other boy in. Eames toppled in, landing squarely on top of Arthur.

"Ow" he hissed again "Get off me you lump" Eames rolled of him, deliberately digging his elbows in till Arthur was shoving him off roughly. "You suck" he chastised.

Eames giggled again, the two of them were still lying next to each other on the floor. Eames wriggled to get more comfortable, his arm tickling Arthurs .

"Sometimes I wish I lived here" Eames sighed softly "Everything's so nice and warm. I feel safe here" he admitted, running his fingers over the carpet fibres.

Arthur took Eames' free hand in his "I wish you lived here too" he whispered. They stayed silent for a moment, just staring at the ceiling together, hands clasped. Eventually though the floor got uncomfortable and Arthur pulled himself up. Eames however showed no signs of moving, he rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Come on lazy" he grabbed Eames' hand to pull him up. Eames winced, and Arthur dropped his arm like it was on fire. Eyes cold, he took hold of Eames wrist and yanked the sleeve up, ignoring Eames' protests until the cuff gave way enough so a large hand shaped bruise became visible.

Fury boiled in the pit of his stomach as he traced the lines of the bruise gently. Eames' eyes remained downcast, ashamed. Arthur hated that pig of a man Eames called his father.

"What was it this time?" he asked, voice tight.

"I forgot to wash my hands before dinner" he mumbled, Arthur's grip on Eames' wrist tightened.

"I hate him" he spat, anger making him shake. His expression was thunderous as he took in another undeserved mark.

It was only when Eames began to shrink away from Arthur that he forced himself to calm down and loosen his grip. Rage reminded Eames of his father and Arthur _never _wanted for him to associate him with that man, even if it meant he had to swallow the fury at every new bruise.

He breathed in to calm himself "Are there anymore?" Eames nodded

"A couple" he muttered

"Why didn't you come to my room like before?" the last time Eames' dad had hurt him, he'd run to Arthur's, who let him in through the back door. Arthur had put a band aid over the cut and some frozen peas on his bruised shoulder.

At the question Eames kept his head down, thumbed the carpet, not meeting Arthur's eyes. He mumbled something too quiet for Arthur to hear at first.

"What did you say?"

"I didn't want to be a burden" it suddenly hit him that Eames was _scared_, not of Arthur, but of losing him. The absurdity of that thought made Arthur smile.

"Eames" he started "Look at me" the other boy finally looked up to meet Arthur's eyes. He moved forward wrapping his arms around Eames, tucking his head on his shoulder. Eames was tense for a moment before relaxing into the hug, bringing his arms up around Arthur, burying his face into his neck. He took a deep breath.

Arthur rubbed comforting circles on his back; like Maisy did for him when he was ill or upset.

"You're my best friend Eames, if I could keep you safe always I would. When we're bigger we'll go away, far away where your dad will never find us. I'll design houses and you'll be a famous actor and no one will ever hurt you 'cause we'll always take care of each other. I'll always come for you and you'll always come for me" through Arthur's speech he felt a wetness on his neck, Eames had begun to shake softly in his arms.

He rocked him slowly as Eames quietly sobbed, and clutched Arthur tighter. He stroked his arm and whispered comforting words in his ear.

"It's always going to be me and you Eames, no matter what happens we'll always be together Eames, no matter what happens we'll never be apart right Sam?" Eames pulled back and gave Arthur a watery smile.

"Of course Frodo" he sniffed and wiped his eyes.

"Don't be silly next time and come to my window, I'll wait up for you" Eames stared in disbelief.

"Every night?" Arthur nodded, squeezing his hand.

And so that became their routine Eames would climb up the drain pip to Arthur's window, and Arthur would always be awake to let him in. The injuries varied from bad to awful at times, sometimes even so that Eames could climb the drainpipe, so Arthur had to sneak him through the back door. He took keeping a first aid kit under his bed, and read books and websites to improve his technique, when the time came for the health class mandatory first aid lesson, the teacher was left gawking at Arthur's perfectly wrapped bandages and woven stitches, he would've be proud if he hadn't learned it cleaning up Eames.

Each time he came to his room, Arthur asked him to tell someone so it would stop, and each time Eames had said no. That his father would kill his mother if he told anyone and his influence would discredit Eames.

The two of them became even inseparable, sitting in class together, eating lunch together, doing homework together. Everyone knew that if you saw Eames or Arthur the other was sure to be close by. Eames often came home to Arthur's house to escape his own, and do work in peace. The two of them playing Xbox in Arthur's room or climbing on the tree in Arthur's garden. They had plans once they reached eighteen they would go to college together, and take Eames' mother Adrienne with them far enough away so The Chief couldn't get to them. The two were closer than ever.

Until the incident.

_Just for the record I hate Eames' father in this, even though I created him. It gets better for Eames and co. I promise, there are happier times head!...And some angst, I'm sorry._


	10. Live Forgotten Nights

_Urgh I have no excuses for this lateness, I was just busy organising uni shizzle and time got away from me (a.k.a Was totally not organised and left everything till the last minute). But anyways here's the latest chapter, hope you enjoy :D_

Eames didn't show up at school that next day, Arthur didn't really notice much until third period English with Mr. Dunn, whilst he registered the class, everyone replying the usual 'Yes sir' when he called out their names in his monotone voice, right until he got to Eames' name.

"Eames?" Silence followed, Mr. Dunn looked up under his thick rimmed glasses "Has anyone seen Mr. Eames?"

One of the jocks right at the back at the class piped up "He didn't show up this morning, I think he's out sick today sir" Arthur ignored Ariadne's nudge to his ribs.

Mr. Dunn raised an eyebrow, then shrugged continuing with the register. But at the end of the lesson, just Arthur was walking out of the classroom to lunch the teacher called him back.

"Arthur, Eames tells me your his new tutor" Arthur nodded warily in response

"Well then would you do me a favour and pass today work along to him?" Arthur felt his stomach drop

"Eames and I aren't really friends, I just tutor him, one of the jocks would probably get it to him better"

Mr. Dunn tutted "I don't trust those boys to pass the stuff on, Eames is failing badly of late, which is a shame because he's always been a bright student, your his tutor and have his academic interests at heart" he leaned back in his chair "but if you're truly adverse to doing this, I can find one of the jocks"

Arthur hesitated for a moment before his resolve crumbled "No it's fine, I'll swing by his house tonight"

Mr. Dunn smiled at him, pleased "Thank you Arthur, you're good student" _We'll see_ Arthur thought to himself, already regretting his decision as he turned and left the classroom. He spent the rest of the day gearing himself up to going to Eames', he hadn't been there for a long time and he hoped the bus route still ran near. Would Eames laugh at Arthur for bring his notes? Call him a nerd? Probably not, the rational part of his brain spoke out, but there was never any guarantee.

The bus did still run past Eames' house, Arthur was both relieved and unhappy with this development, slightly resenting the bus driver as he waved Arthur happily through. He called his aunt en route to tell he was just going to drop some notes off with Eames, she seemed pleased with this fact and told him not to worry, that she'd leave Lily with Mrs. Egerton from downstairs. The bus dropped him off just a few minutes' walk away from Eames' house, far sooner than he wished he was standing outside the wrought iron gates off Eames' house.

'House' though was a major understatement for where Eames lived, it was more like a mansion, like in one of those gothic novels, Arthur knew for a fact that they had a gardener and at some point he swore they had a maid. Eames' mother had apparently came from money and inherited _a lot _when her parents died. Still Arthur had never been particularly fond of Eames' home, the few times he'd been there, there'd been this heavy atmosphere, like everyone was walking a thin tightrope, just waiting for the wire to snap. He'd been nine when he realised this was all down to Eames' father, he'd been a Cornel in the army, apparently Arthur had heard whispers that he'd risen so quickly through the ranks with less than savoury methods, Arthur had disliked him on site, and he'd disliked Arthur.

He took a deep breath, and walked through the open gates, up the driveway to Eames' house/mansion. Growing up where he had, having to scrape by everyday and sometimes hiding from the super, he probably should've been jealous that Eames could have anything he asked for, but it'd always been the other way round, and Arthur wouldn't have traded Maisy and Lily for the world. He made his way to the front door; a large thing made of some sort of dark oak and knocked the large wrought iron knocker. A scuffle came from the other side of the door, along with the sound of locks clicking open, then he came face to face with a haggard looking Eames, whose expression went from suspicious to surprised when he saw Arthur standing there.

"Arthur? What are you doing here? We didn't have a lesson today did we?" Eames did look tired, but apart from that he looked fine from what Arthur could see, could it be that he'd just skipped?

"No" he answered quickly "Mr. Dunn just asked me to give you these notes; we've got an assignment due on Monday" Eames expression cleared into understanding.

"Thank you" Arthur's stomach did a weird flip at the warmth of Eames' smile

"'S no problem" he muttered "I don't have a copy so you just need to photocopy my notes"

Eames grinned and opened the door wider, "Come on in" Arthur walked into Eames house, as he passed he caught the scent of Eames' cologne, the one he always wore and felt warmth pool in the bottom of his stomach. Eames' house was almost exactly as he remembered it, a lot of fancy looking painting's and 18th Century decor, his first thought when he walked into Eames' home for the first time in years was the fact it was surprisingly cool in comparison to the heat outside, Arthur didn't even want to consider the air condition bill for a house this size.

Eames cleared his throat and Arthur realised with embarrassment that he'd drifted off looking round the house, and blushed furiously.

"Do you want something to drink" Eames asked, Arthur wanted to say no, say the fact that he was here at all was mad, but his throat was parched and he really was thirsty.

"Yes please" Eames smiled again, and made a gesture for Arthur to follow him. He led Arthur to one of the sitting rooms, he could smell the plush leather from here, rich people stuff.

"Wait here, I'll get us something, I'm afraid we've only got diet coke if that's ok?"

Arthur grinned "Watching you weight? You like you're putting on a few pounds" Eames looked affronted, gasping theatrically.

"I'll have you know I'm svelte" Arthur raised his eyebrow at him, and Eames smirked "And yes, I know what that means"

"It's a miracle"

"Cheek" Eames winked at Arthur as he walked out. In his absence Arthur found himself looking round the room he was in, a lot of the furniture looked like it cost more than six months rent for Arthur, the walls were covered in large bookcases, filled with dusty looking tomes, Arthur traced the spines of some with his finger as he admired them. The entire house looked like it'd been pulled from Downtown Abbey. The only spot not covered was an old Victorian looking fireplace, above it was a large oil painting of a field in vivid yellows and greens, the sky was pastel green with fluffy patches of whites, it was a very beautiful picture.

"Arthur?" he jumped, spinning at the voice behind him. Katherine Eames chuckled at Arthur's guilty expression, arms folded neatly in her lap. She'd gained a little weight since he'd last seen her three years ago it made her face look healthy, so unlike the thin, gaunt women from before, her long brown hair fanned her face, and a hint of eye make-up brought out her blue-green eyes, Eames' eyes.

He was taken aback however when he noticed the wheel chair she was sitting in, truth be told he hadn't seen Eames' mother since the car crash that had killed Eames' father, nobody had, from what he'd heard she became a reclusive, barely ever leaving her house. The rumours ranged from the idea that she was taking a trip round Europe to she'd become a mad, wild woman. There'd obviously been no truth to them she was still here and still exceedingly beautiful. He felt his heart ache; so much of Eames came from his mother, from their laughing eyes to the cocky little smirks.

"Hello Miss. Eames" she smiled brightly at him

"Please Arthur; it's always been Katherine to you" he returned her smile. She and Eames both shared an English accent, though hers was softer and suited for high class society. Arthur always imagined if she'd been born in 18th century England, she'd have fit like a glove. "I haven't seen you in a long time" she continued "the last time we saw each other wasn't on the best of circumstances"

Arthur nodded solemnly "I'm just here to drop some notes off to Eames, he hired me as his tutor and I wouldn't want him falling behind"

Katherine hummed in agreement "You always had Eames' best interests at heart" she murmured softly, her eyes suddenly glazed over slightly "Will you stay for dinner Arthur? My husband will be home soon and he likes coming back to a good home cocked meal"

Arthur frowned in confusion "Um, Miss. Eames?..."

"Mrs. Eames" she corrected, smiling as if in a daze "I haven't been Miss Eames since I was a school girl" Arthur stood there, rooted to the spot "You're always such a good boy Arthur, what are you in your last year of middle school?"

"N...no" he stuttered "No Mrs. Eames, I'm in high school" Katherine chuckled as if he'd said something ridiculous

"Don't be silly dear, you're younger than Eames and he just had his fourteenth birthday" she tutted "You shouldn't tease a young lady" her voice was...almost dreamlike and she couldn't seem to focus on Arthur.

"Mum!" Eames' voice pierced, he stood in the doorway, concern pinching his brow "You should be in bed, the doctor said you shouldn't strain yourself" Katherine laughed again

"Don't be silly my darling, I have to make your father a meal before he gets home, you know how much he loves my cooking" she turned back to Arthur, her limbs were completely lax, the way she moved resembled being drunk "my husband takes such good care of us"

Arthur bit back the cutting remark at Eames' shaking head and plastered the best fake smile he could onto his face. Eames strode over to them, putting the two glasses of coke on the table before bending down so he was level with Katherine and laid his hand over hers "Dad called and said he was going to back late tonight, you have plenty of time to take a nap" he smiled at his mother, but Arthur saw the way his smile didn't reach his eyes, it looked so horribly false and wrong, the way Eames' smiled when he was trying to keep it together, that Arthur wanted to wipe it off.

"He works so hard to provide for us, you're so lucky" Arthur watched as Eames' muscles tensed, and a pained look came into his eyes.

"Yes mum, he does, but now let's get you to bed shall we"

Katherine tuted again "Please angel, I'm not some sort of invalid, I can get myself to bed" she rolled her eyes at Arthur; he tried his best to smile.

"Nevertheless, I should—" Katherine hushed Eames by waving her hand at him

"Don't be silly, it's rude to leave company, thank goddess we have time to improve your manners before you get into high school"

"Mum please" Arthur's heart broke at the waver in Eames' tone "Let's just get you to bed" he turned his back to Arthur, and rolled his mother out of the room.

"Goodbye Arthur" she called "Give your Aunt and Uncle my best" Eames' hands clenched the handles of the wheel chair and Arthur's next breath was a chocked one. He stood there, unable to move, he just stared at the spot where Eames and Adrienne had left. With a start he realised that he'd unconsciously clenched his hands into fists, and released them. Katherine had always been... delicate, but she always seemed to have a sort of strength and stubbornness in her, he never would've guessed..I mean this was beyond anything he'd ever imagined had happened to her. Eames' father had been a tyrant, his very name still made Arthur's skin crawl, when he'd died Arthur had damned near celebrated.

When Eames' came back into the living room, he wouldn't meet Arthur's eyes, instead choosing to focus on a spot on the floor "She's uh...just napping now"

Arthur swallowed nervous "It was um, nice to see her again"

Eames chuckled bitterly "I'm sure"

Silence followed Eames' statement, Arthur tried to speak, to say something to ease the tension, but no words would form. Ariadne was so much better at this emotional stuff than he was. Eames sighed and sat down, heavily on the sofa, Arthur tentatively joined him; both stared at their hands, not saying anything.

After a few long moments Eames broke the silence "It started happening a few months after he died" Arthur didn't speak, waiting for Eames to continue "The doctors says it's some sort of regression to when dad had one of his 'nicer' periods to deal with everything that happened, sometimes she gets things like books and movies jumbled up with real life. She just thinks we're this one big happy family and they can't snap her out of it" Eames voice shook, Arthur felt the urge to put a hand on his shoulder, but resisted.

"The first time it happened I was so confused, she just kept talking about 'when your father comes home', I thought for a moment she'd just forgotten but she didn't stop, even when I reminded her dad was dead. She just laughed at me like I was an idiot" he chuckled again coldly "she doesn't even realise she's in a wheelchair" he clasped his hands together, still not looking at Arthur.

"That's why I wasn't in school today; her carer suddenly came down sick and you can't just leave her alone the way she is, she'd hurt herself" he looked at Arthur, eyes shiny and pleading "Please don't tell anyone at school, I know I have no right to ask you anything, you're already doing me a favour but I can't stand the thought of everyone making jokes about 'Eames mad mum', she deserves better than that. Please Arthur I'm begging you" he grasped Arthur's hands.

"Eames" he spoke softly "I'm not going to tell anyone" a single tear slipped down the other boys cheek, he managed to hold out for a few moments before his face crumpled completely. Arthur wrapped him in a tight hug, Eames body shook and small sobs escaped his lip. Arthur held him through it, like when they were kids, it felt so strange, but so normal to have Eames in his arms again, he stroked Eames' hair gently, humming softly into his ear a soothing tune from their childhood. It'd been years since they'd been in this position, even though they were almost adults, Arthur had never felt safer.

He wasn't sure how long they sat there, Arthur's arms wrapped around Eames' body, long after Eames grew quiet and his body became still again. Eventually he pulled back so his face was a few metres away from Arthur's, and flicked his eyes to him, the atmosphere suddenly changed and grew heavy. Arthur found himself trapped under Eames' gaze, he'd forgotten what it was like to be the sole benefactor of Eames' attention. Eames moved forward the slightest bit, the rational part of Arthur's brain screamed at him to pull back, to get off the couch and to leave this house behind, but the voice was tiny in compared to everything else. Eames moved forward again, eyes half closed, Arthur found himself moving forwards as well. Eames tilted his head until Arthur could feel the warmth of Eames' breath tickling his face, he could smell the musky cologne from before, and the intoxicating scent that was just plain Eames. His eyes flickered shut and he could feel the ghost of Eames' lips on his.

A loud band had Arthur jerking back, to face Eames, wide-eyed and surprised.

"Eames" a female voice called "I'm feeling tons better now, so I thought I could come down" Eames' mouth opened and shut like a fish, for a moment the two just stared at each other, both to startled to even say one word. Then pure panic filled Arthur's system as he realised what they'd almost done, and he grabbed his bag from where he'd dropped it exploring earlier and rushed towards the door.

He caught of a glimpse of a young woman in baggy knitwear and brown hair, scrapped into a ponytail as he practically ran to the door, he heard her say something like of 'Whose your friend?' as he darted around her and out the door as quickly as he could manage and threw himself down the driveway. Behind him he heard he heard Eames call his name, but he didn't turn around, he had to get away from him, had to get away.

As a small mercy the bus was waiting for him when he reached the stop, the chances of Eames following him were slim but he didn't want to risk it. He barely remembered the bus ride home, his body seemed to just go through the motions without him thinking about it, somehow he ended up outside the flat, hands shaking as he tried to put the key in the lock. On his fifth attempt he managed it and stepped inside his home and fell back against the door, he managed not to hyperventilate in the car, but now the panic was rolling over him and he wanted to curl up or throw up, which ever happened first.

Lily came bounding down the hallway to hug his legs, squealing "Uncle Artie's home!" Maisy followed her out, but her smile disappeared when she saw the look on Arthur's face.

"Lily go and sit living room" the little girl pouted

"But I didn't to tell Uncle about my day" Maisy looked her daughter in the eye

"Now Lily" her tone leaving no room for argument, the little girl finally looked at Arthur and nodded at her mother, scuttling into the living room. His aunt immediately came to him, putting her hands on his shoulders "Arthur what's wrong?"

He shook his head, put her arms around him, the gesture was intended to comfort him but it only reminded him of what happened at Eames' house and a fresh wave of panic swept him up. Once she let go, she tilted his chin up, concern filling her expression.

"I just need to go to my room" something in his face made her drop her hands and nod, he walked past her, straight into his room at the end of the hall and clicked his door shut. He collapsed onto his bed and hugged his knees, body shaking. He tried to breath slowly, in and out but he flashed back to what happened and he would have to gulp in air just to keep himself calm.

What happened, or nearly happened at Eames' had been a mistake, just a combination of wanting to comfort Eames and being in a weird situation, that was all, old feelings getting muddled; just a mistake. A horrible mistake.

So why did he wish so much that they hadn't been interrupted.

_Thanks so much for reviewing and all the kind words, it really makes me smile :D _


	11. Give Disgrace a Name

_Beholdeth, another flashback! _

_4 years ago_

Everything was set in motion after Eames 'fell down the stairs' and Katherine took her son to the hospital.

Arthur had got on his bike and rode there the moment he got the news, marching straight into the hospital as if on a warpath. He found Katherine biting her perfectly manicured nails to the skin in the waiting room, chocolate brown hair pulled back into a tight bun. Her makeup was smeared and tear stained, with a bruise slowly becoming visible under her right eye. When she saw Arthur she'd hugged him tightly.

She had such a good heart, and she loved Eames to bits, but she had been beaten into submission under her husband's stifling regime. He'd never understood why she didn't just leave The Chief, Eames had just shook his head sadly and told him it was more complicated than that, because she still loved him.

Arthur didn't understand that either, but Eames had looked so crestfallen he'd just let it go.

"I'm so glad you're here Arthur" she wobbled, wiping her eyes, spreading the mascara further. Katherine Eames even in this state was gorgeous; she had the face of a film star like Rachel Weiz the wealthy girl from London. She had been the queen of her school and Marco had been the king, it was natural that the two would become the power couple. Now though, even being beautiful hadn't made her good enough in the eyes of Eames' father; The Chief demanded absolute perfection, the perfect wife, the perfect son and the perfect son and house.

Eames had told him his dad had beaten Adrienne especially violently when he'd discovered she'd gone 5 pounds over his 100lb limit.

"Is he here?" Arthur asked, not even attempting to keep the venom out of his voice. The women shook her head.

"After Eames...fell, he stormed out of the house, I shouldn't be here it's not allowed, but he hurt my poor baby so bad" She put her face in her hands sobbing, Arthur, numb from anger squeezed her shoulder instead of yielding to impulse to punch a wall.

He waited for her to continue, after a minute she brought her head up, face a mask of tears.

"They took him into A and E an hour ago, and nobody'll tell me anything, just keep saying 'go wait over there Mrs. Eames" she chocked, Arthur patted her shoulder.

"I'll go sort it out" he walked to the front office, where a nurse whose name tag said 'Latisha' was sat sorting through papers.

"Excuse me?" the woman looked up at the sound of Arthur's voice. "I'm trying to get some information about a patient under the name of 'Paddington Eames" she looked him up and down.

"You a family member honey?" he shook his head.

"No, but he's my best friend. His mums right there but she's crying too much to get a word out. Please" he pleaded; desperate "I just want to know he's safe" the woman's eyes soften.

"Y'know I can't give you any information. But if I tell his momma and you just happened to there, there's nothing I can do" relief filled Arthur and the knot in his chest loosened slightly.

"Where is his momma?" Arthur led her to Katherine who looked up from her hands when she noticed them in front of her.

"Mrs. Eames" she nods "The doctors have told me that your son is going to be fine Miss" the two breathed a sign of pure relief as the knot untied completely "He has a broken arm, a bust up rib, multiple bruises and a broken finger, but the doctor said there was no permanent damage, he's just sleeping now" Katherine starting sobbing again.

"Oh thank you, I was so worried Nurse Baker kept telling me to sit down and I thought for sure that..." she chocked

"Did she?" Latisha narrowed her eyes at the other nurse, filing her nails at the desk, Arthur joined shooting her daggers and hoping her nails dropped off.

"I'll talk with her, but for now honey I wanted to ask you" she knelt down to Katherine's height and took her had "Is everything ok sweetheart" Adrienne's face faltered and Arthur internally begged her to tell him, but she composed herself.

"No, no it was an accident, you know how teenage boys are" Latisha gave her a look that told her she knew she was being lied to.

"You know" she said softly "I had me a man once, at the beginning he treated me so good, bought me flowers and candy; treated me like I was a princess. We got married young and I couldn't be happier, especially after I found out I was pregnant with my first. Then things begin to change, so slow I didn't realise at first, just little things, like my cooking or clothes. Then it got more and more until nothing I did was ever right and he yelled at me every day. When I was six months pregnant he hit me for the first time" Adrienne paled about that.

"The first time it happened, I did what any woman would do, I left and went to a friends. But then he came round, tellin' me he loved me, bought me presents. It took three days of promises for me to take him back. My girlfriend said I was crazy, and she was right, but I was pregnant and in love.

For a while it was good then eight months in the hittin' started again, this time I didn't leave, I couldn't, he'd brainwashed me to make me believe no one else would ever want me. Through it all I still believed he loved me. He broke me completely, tore my self-esteem, my independence to pieces.

My only joy came from my baby girl DeShawn, he didn't lay a hand on her for awhile, but when she was five years old she broke a vase, just a small one but he broke her wrist for it. It took me two years and another pregnancy to get the strength to leave. The thing is honey the way he loved me, it was like poison, deadly and not really love, just power and control"

Katherine seemed to just crumble at the nurse's story, and sobbed into her hands, Latisha put a hand on her shoulder, it was a very personal moment and despite their audience Arthur felt the need to avert his eyes. He focused his mind on trying not to worry about the state Eames' must be in, tried to tell himself that everything would be ok, Eames was strong, he'd pull through anything. Latisha took Adrienne to a more private setting, whilst Arthur waited, and waited for news, for anything.

He must've dozed at some point because a hand on his arm caught him off guard; Latisha smiled kindly down at him "Hey honey. You're friends awake now, and he asked for you. Down the hall, fifth door on the right" Arthur quickly thanked her and ran through the double doors, desperate to see Eames, to see for himself that Eames was ok.

He just managed to stop himself before he collided with Katherine as she emerged from Eames' room, she smiled a watery smile "He's ok Arthur" she breathed.

Arthur didn't say what he wanted to. That 'ok' didn't entail being in a hospital bed, that nothing about this situation was 'ok', but she looked so damn relived he bit his tongue "I'll give you boys some privacy, I'm just going to get Eames some water" when she walked down the corridor Arthur watched her leave, he had no idea how she did all this, how she coped with everything that went on around her, sometimes she seemed to just shut it all out.

Arthur shook his head at her, Eames was who needed him now, not Katherine, and with that thought he walked through the door to Eames' room. His friend lay on the bed, and Arthur's heart leapt in his throat when he saw the state he was in, his right eye was badly bruised and his cheek had puffed up beyond belief, he looked like he'd fought three rounds with a bear and lost. But when he lifted his head and saw Arthur, Eames broke out into the biggest grin he could manage.

"Hey Frodo" he croaked, Arthur rushed over to him and held his hand tightly "hey, hey don't cry Arthur" Eames soothed; Arthur didn't understand what he was talking about until he felt the wetness on his cheeks.

"I was so scared" he sobbed, part of him was ashamed, Eames was the one who was in pain and here he was blubbering like a baby, but his best friend shuffled over in the bed and patted the space he'd left, and Arthur clamoured into it. The two lay facing each other on their sides, tears still flowing down Arthur's face and Eames reassuring him that he was fine.

"It's not fine Eames" he bit "Look at what he's done to you! You have to tell someone Eames!"

"Then what?" Eames asked, eyes sad "Court dates? Custody battles? Foster care? Prison? Her forgiving him and this cycle all over again? You don't understand Arthur" he muttered

Arthur's temper flared at Eames' words "You're right Eames I don't. If I loved someone I would never, ever hurt them! I would never ever hurt you Eames!" Eames smiled sadly at Arthur and took his hand, the anger left Arthur as quickly as it came. "I can't lose you Eames" he'd lost his parents, his uncle, his home, he couldn't lose one of the most precious things in his life, he couldn't lose another person he loved. Because he did love Eames; more than anything in the world.

Eames squeezed his hand "You'll never lose me Arthur Reyes-Holmes" Arthur moved closer to Eames, as close to an embrace as Eames could manage in his condition.

Adrienne Eames watched this scene from the other side of the window in the room, watched as her son found the thing she'd never had from someone who wasn't a blood relative. Pure love. Whether Eames realised it or not. Now they just had to survive the world together.

_Just so you know I was mad at myself for the pain I cause the boys in this chapter! At this point really Arthur is defiantly in love with Eames, not that he's told him, be warned though, much angst follows them. Hah try as I might, I just can't write fluff, I always end up putting a death or an explosion or two in there...don't worry though I'm a sucker for happy endings ;)_


	12. High Hopes

_Next chapter up! Hope you guys enjoy :D_

Arthur hid in his room as late as he could in the morning, but eventually he had to drag himself out and get ready for work. When he finally checked his phone there were three messages from Ariadne, one from Robert, which was also a message from Ariadne and one from an unknown number.

_Can we talk? Please. - E_

Arthur's thumb hovered over the delete button. For a few moments he dithered, chewing his bottom lip. "You're an idiot" he muttered to himself and snapped his phone shut. Maisy and Lily skirted around him when he went to grab his breakfast, they tried to include Arthur in the conversation a couple of times but got little to no reply. He did feel guilty for ignoring his family but he'd barely gotten any sleep the night before, and he was still walking around in a state of shock and anger.

He was angry at himself, he knew better than to get that close to Eames again, he could've told the jocks that Arthur had tried to kiss _him_. His hands shook as he drank his coffee, his school life could become ten times worse than the abysmal condition it was already in. He pushed the sick feeling down, right now he needed to focus, get to work and get home, repeat and if the shit hit the fan on Monday, well, they had schools in Honolulu right?

He got into work five minutes earlier, his weekends and occasional week days were spent at his part time job at the town's local supermarket. He was a cashier and stacked shelves, not exactly exciting work but it brought in some extra money. Work was a good distraction from everything though; he bagged and sorted, chatted to some of the regular costumers, old Mrs. Egerton from downstairs always sought Arthur's till out, even if there was a long queue. She'd taken a shine to Arthur when they'd first moved in, because he apparently reminded her of her own son we he'd been young.

By the time work was over he'd been so busy all day that he'd barely thought about Eames at all, at the end of his shift he picked up some cupcakes as an apology to Maisy and Lily for his standoffishness that morning and the night before, he even felt up to calling Ariadne on the bus ride home. She was thankfully distracted from the topic of Eames, instead she complained that her crazy Wisconsin relatives had invaded her home once again, and had filled the house with various cheeses that couldn't be eaten until 'family dinner'. Arthur chuckled at her story; Ari was a Wisconsin native but moved to the same town as Arthur when she was fourteen. With her as the new girl and him as the outcast they'd bonded almost immediately, despite her insistence that she loved the town, she would also often wistfully talk about Wisconsin with an air of homesickness about her. She'd promised to take Arthur to her old house one day and give him the grand Wisconsin tour; he couldn't say whether he was excited or scared by this idea.

His offerings were well received by the girls when he got home; Lily all but grabbed the box out of his hands before cutting off the blood supply to his leg with a tight bear hug. Maisy beamed at Arthur and kissed him lightly on the side of his head, stating she was glad he was feeling better. Arthur finally felt calm again as the three of them prepared dinner, well Lily helped stir the pot under Arthur's paranoid and overprotective supervision and watched Maisy chop carrots. Half way through cooking, when Arthur was laughing at a story his Aunt Maisy was telling, her movements getting more extravagant as she went on, they heard a knock at the door.

Arthur didn't even think about it, assuming Mrs. Egerton had locked herself out again. So he was completely taken aback when he opened the front door and found Eames on the other side, looking just as tired as Arthur, worse even.

For a moment Arthur just stared dumbfounded as if Eames had appeared out of thin air.

"Hello Arthur" the other boy greeted. His voice sounded rough like sandpaper and his hair, for once, wasn't sleeked back and instead it hung free around his face, covering his glasses.

"Arthur who is it?" his aunt's voice called from the kitchen.

Arthur recovered himself and straightened up "It's um, it's Eames Maisy"

"EAMES!" he moved out of the way just in time, as Lily came barrelling out of the living room and threw her arms around Eames, who just managed to bend down in time to catch her. She leaned back, a grin stretching from ear to ear "Your back! We missed you"

"You saw him three days ago" Arthur grumbled. Maisy appeared in the hallway to see about all the commotion, her face softened when she saw Eames in the doorway "Good evening Eames, we were just making dinner if you want to come in"

The other boy's eyes flicked to Arthur's, silently asking permission, Arthur lowered his eyes and held the door open for him, even though his first instinct to slam it and go hide under the blankets in his room again. Eames took the gesture and gave Arthur's aunt his most charismatic smile "Thank you Mrs. Reyes-Holmes, I was just wondering if I could have a quick word with Arthur?"

Charming bastard.

"That's no problem with me, I'll just keep dinner warm until you boys are done" damn that Eames and his never ending ability to win over parents.

Lily still hadn't let go of Eames' arm "Will you play with me afterwards Sir Eames?" he knelt down opposite her and held her tiny hand as he bowed his head.

"I'm afraid I can't tonight my princess, but if I come again, I promise to play with you until I can no longer stand" the girls giggled at the display.

"Come on honey" Maisy held her hand out and Lily ran to her mother "we need to get you fed and into bed soon" he heard Lily grumble a noise of protest as Maisy led her into the kitchen.

Arthur closed the door silently, "We can talk in my room" he instructed as he breezed past Eames, he strode to the end of the hall and quickly dipped into his own room, praying that a miracle would happened and Eames somehow wouldn't follow. Of course that didn't happen, and a few beats after Arthur came in, Eames followed, the two still not making eye contact. Arthur clicked the door shut after Eames and sat down heavily on the bed, bouncing a little. Eames stood awkwardly for a moment, until Arthur rolled his eyes in frustration "You can sit down" he muttered and Eames quickly obeyed, sitting tentatively next to Arthur.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea thinking about it, the last time they'd been in this position it had ended with Arthur running as far away from Eames as he could; worry began to knaw at his stomach.

Eames broke the silence first "You left your English book at mine" he passed it to Arthur.

"Thanks" he murmured, the silence grew incredibly uncomfortable again.

Eames took a deep breath before turning to face him "Arthur...I didn't mean...it's just" Arthur closed his eyes, unwilling to hear any sad excuses.

"It's fine" he concluded "Nothing happened, everything's just happened really quickly, a week ago we didn't speak and now you're in my apartment" he rationalised as best he could, even if somewhere deep down he didn't believe it himself. "It was nothing, nothing happened" he affirmed a little forcefully.

"Yeah" Eames murmured, the look in his eyes betrayed some sort of emotion, but Arthur didn't want to analyse it, he just wanted things back the way they were.

"I was thinking our next sessions could be Monday and Wednesday?" he asked, standing up quickly and feigning brightness in his voice "How's that sound?"

Something flickered over Eames' face before he nodded; giving Arthur a thin smile "Sounds great" he stood up slowly "I'll pick you up after my practise is over on Monday ok?"

Arthur tried to hide his swallow at the thought of being trapped in a car with Eames but he followed Eames up, and gave his best fake smile "Great. I'll see you Monday" Eames nodded at his reply.

A tense atmosphere still hung between the two, but it seemed to ease slightly when Eames shook his head and did a sort of half laugh that sounded almost humourless to Arthur's ears "Yeah. See you tomorrow Arthur" he held his hand up when Arthur moved "Don't worry I know the way out" he joked; it felt like weights were on either side of Arthur's mouth when he smiled back.

Eames looked at Arthur one last time, and then turned on his heels and walked out of Arthur's room, he heard him call out a farewell to Maisy and Lily and then the lock on the front door click. Arthur let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, untensed his muscles and fell back onto the bed. Well that when well.

There was a quite knocking, and Maisy appeared on the other side of his door "We're just going to have some food Arthur, you coming?" he nodded, and with effort pulled himself off the bed to a standing position. Before he could leave however, Maisy put a hand on his shoulder "Is everything ok?"

Arthur rubbed his eyes "Please, I really don't want to talk about it right now" he admitted. She patted his shoulder gently

"I'm here for you whenever you need to talk, but only if you're ready" he smiled at her gratefully

"I know. Thanks May"

Things between Arthur and Eames after Eames' visit weren't exactly normal, but weren't awful either. He would be lying half of him wasn't completely paranoid once Monday rolled around Eames would've told everyone some kind of skewed story, involving Arthur throwing himself at him. He spent all day on high alert until Ariadne finally snapped at lunch and told him to calm down as whatever it was, was making _her _nervous. In response he asked her how exactly Eames managed to get his number, she had the grace to blush and avert her eyes biting in too her sandwich.

But Eames didn't tell anyone anything as far as Arthur could tell, at the end of the day there was no repercussions as far as school went to what had happened.

Their next tutor lesson went without incident, Arthur stop being such an ass to Eames and Eames hung on Arthur's every word, taking notes and actually making some intelligent comments about the book. By the time Eames went home that night Arthur had complimented Eames by accident exactly two times and the other boy had reminded him of that fact _two hundred_ times. When Arthur had shut the door on him he'd given Arthur the cocky smirk that Arthur remembered, and the last tendrils of panic leave his system.

They established some sort of routine between them, organising two lessons a week on Monday after Eames' practise and Wednesday. Eames would give Arthur a lift home in his car, they'd fight about which music to listen to, Arthur was into Indie, or as Eames called it 'pretentious hipster sounds'. He much proffered Classic Rock which was from what Arthur learned, Led Zeppelin, Meatloaf, ACDC and other bands that used lots of electric guitars.

When they reached Arthur's house they would get out their books and Arthur would go over the parts of their lesson that Eames didn't understand, sometimes they worked through his homework together, or Eames would give him what he'd written and Arthur would go through it correcting. At the end of an hour and a half, Lily - who up until this point would have been waiting patiently for her uncle and Eames - to finish would drag them off to colour, or build a fort. Sometimes Maisy would join them; more often than not she'd take the opportunity to get some much needed rest. A couple of times Arthur had caught her watching them play with Lily from the kitchen or in the doorway in the hall, a steaming mug of tea in her hands and a secret smile on her face.

Toupee Terry was out of the picture, apparently he couldn't handle her busy work schedule and the fact she shared a flat with her daughter and nephew. She waved Arthur off when he tried to come up with something comforting.

"Stuff him. Nothing is more important to me than my family" Arthur saw Eames - who had been sitting at the table, books spread out in front of him - smile softly, when he caught Arthur staring the smile grew wider and his face filled with warmth. Eames always seemed more relaxed at Arthur's than he had at his own home. True to his word Arthur hadn't mentioned the state of Katherine to anyone, and he also hadn't broached the subject with Eames remembering how pained he looked talking to Arthur about her.

They had a routine, it was nice. Even the jocks backed off Arthur when they found out he was tutoring Eames, who, according to Ariadne, had been in danger of being kicked off the team because of his dropping GPA. Not wanting one of their best players evicted from the team, they gave Arthur some breathing room, which he relished in.

Eames also sought Arthur out more at school, not excessively, but they spoke more in a few short weeks at school than they had in three years.

Sometimes he'd hang out longer than the session required, like now, the two were sitting in Arthur's room; he was on his bed reading 'Wuthering Heights', highlighting key parts for his quote bank, whist Eames lay on the floor flipping through the pages of 'Othello'.

"This play is bloody depressing" he interjected into the comfortable silence they'd lapsed into.

Arthur shifted to the side of the bed, above where Eames lay on his back holding the book above his face "It's supposed to be, Othello is a Shakespearian tragedy"

"Still the guy suffers from seizures, gets tricked by his manservant into thinking his wife is a cheater, decides the best way to deal with it is too kill said wife, and then is arrested and finds out that sneaky bastard Iago was lying and manipulating him all along" he laid the book down on his chest and looked at Arthur "It just seems a bit excessive is all"

"Wait until you get to Hamlet" he joked, Eames frowned

"Is that the one where just everybody dies?"

"In a nutshell" Arthur nodded

"English is just a rollercoaster ride of happy and fulfilling relationships isn't it?" Arthur chuckled at him

"If they were happy no one would read them, that's why 'Jason the Happy Bunny' is in the children's section" he reminded

Eames pulled a sour face "I'll have you know 'Jason the Happy Bunny' is one of the greatest books of this literary age!" Arthur rolled over onto his stomach

"I'll make sure to mention that to Mr. Dunn on Friday, I'm sure it'll make his day" Arthur ducked as the pillow Eames was resting his head on flew towards his own head, he grabbed it and chucked it back onto Eames' face. After a few back and forth's Eames surrendered, and retrieved the pillow from the corner of the room where it had landed. When he settled down again, Arthur had already moved back to his book and had just gotten to the part where Heathcliff was admitting to having dug up a very dead Catherine, when Eames interrupted him again.

"You haven't got any posters on your wall" Arthur sighed and marked his page with his little bookmark (creasing the paper was sacrilege) and laid it by his side. He rolled back over so his hand was steadying him at the edge of the bed; Eames was staring up at Arthur's ceiling.

"So?" Eames shrugged and looked round.

"I always kind of imagined you'd have posters" Arthur rested his head on his wrist

"You imagined?" Eames shifted uncomfortably

"Well...y'know, your old room used to have posters" Arthur bit his tongue at the question on the tip of it, he chose to move away from the subject instead

"Our super didn't want anything stuck up on the walls; apparently the faulty plumbing he can ignore but not a single mark of blue tack" Eames smirked and sat up on his elbows.

"You should put a huge one above your bed just to piss him off" Arthur grinned at the image of the buildings heavily overweight super, red faced and fuming at the marks.

"I bet if it was of a half naked woman he'd been fine with it" Eames' face fell just the slightest bit and he waited a moment before speaking again.

"So" he cleared his throat "You and that girl, Ariadne are close right?" Arthur raised an eyebrow and nodded, suspicious of where the conversation was going "You guy's a couple or anything like that?"

Arthur swore he really could not control the bark of laughter that escaped him at Eames' question; the other boy looked a little bit put out at Arthur's response "Just asking"

"No, no" Arthur assured him, wiping his eyes "Urgh, I mean just, no! Ari's a pretty girl but she's like my little sister for Christ's sake!" he hesitated before saying the next part "and there's the fact she is a girl"

Eames relaxed a little, smile coming back "Oh...good" Arthur raised his eyebrow again "I was just asking 'cause Yusuf sort of likes her and he didn't want to tread on your toes" Eames hastily explained, but Arthur could've sworn he looked unusually happy about the fact that Arthur wasn't dating Ari.

"So is he finally gonna ask her out?" Eames nodded; Arthur rolled onto his back "Thank Christ, I was a few days away from telling him to grow a pair"

A burst of surprised laughter escaped Eames "Already beat you to it love" Arthur grinned at the ceiling, this would make Ari's day.

"Just tell him if he ever hurts her, I will break his legs" a huff of amusement came from the floor

"I don't doubt it darling" the lapsed again into a comfortable silence, Arthur closed his eyes and let the tension behind his eyes flood away. For the third time Eames interrupted the silence, only this time the blame was placed on his phone, which broke out into Beyonce's 'Single Ladies'. He ignored Arthur's look at the song, standing up as he answered.

"Hello?" there was the faint sound of talking at the end of the line "Oh god I'm sorry I completely forgot...Yeah I'm sorry I just lost track of time...I'll make sure you get some extra...No I insist...thank you you're a godsend" he nodded into the phone "Ok, I'll see you in a few minutes Marie"

"_Marie?_"he felt a uncomfortable spike in his gut. Eames flipped the phone shut and turned apologetically to Arthur.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stay this long" he ran a hand through his hair, dislodging the slicked back style so some strands fell across his face, combined with the glasses he looked a little...cute.

"It's no problem" Arthur shrugged swinging his legs over the side of the bed

Eames started gathering up his stuff "Sorry I have to rush off, that was my mum's carer she's supposed to clock off at 7 tonight and I guess I just lost track of time" he rubbed his neck sheepishly

Arthur walked Eames to the front door "I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow" he offered shyly

"Yeah" there was a brief moment were they both stood awkwardly in Arthur's doorway.

"Bye then" Eames waved and turned on his heels, Arthur bit his lip wrestling with indecision for a moment before he caved.

"Eames" he called out, the other boy turned sharply in the corridor.

"Yeah?"

"Um, Ariadne's having this thing at her house on Saturday, and I was wondering...y'know if um you might want to come along?" he mumbled the last part "with Yusuf" he added quickly. Eames was looking at Arthur as if he'd grown two heads and Arthur couldn't hold his gaze, instead concentrating on the growing patch of damp on the wall at the bottom of the third floor staircase. Of course Eames wouldn't want to come, he was probably going to some dumb jock party with booze and easy girls who would practically throw themselves at one of the schools star athletes, he probably thought of Arthur as just his nerdy ex-friend and tutor, walking social suicide, there's no way –

"Arthur!" with a start he jerked out of his self pity monologue and realised with embarrassment that Eames had been talking.

"Sorry" he laughed weakly "zoned out" Eames didn't push the issue.

"I said I'd love to" he replied as he thumbed a lose string on his hoodie, emblazed with their high school logo and the name of their football team "are you sure you want me there?" he asked, a nervous but hopeful tilt to his voice.

"Yeah, I mean Ariadne's been dying to meet you and the more time Robert spends with human beings instead of his laptop the better he'll be so yeah" he shrugged "Come, I'll text you the details"

Eames beamed at Arthur like the guy had just offered him a free holiday "Cool I'll see you there then, so long darling" he waved as he dipped down the stairs. Arthur breathed out; two sides warred in him, one that shouted at him for being an idiot and inviting Eames to Ariadne's and the other from his childhood who missed the friendship he'd had with the other boy. He'd forgotten how funny (and annoying) he was, and how he managed to charm everyone with a cocky smirk or grin but would save these little real smiles for Arthur.

"Well at least Ariadne will be over the fucking moon" he thought to himself, closing the front door softly. In the living room his aunt sat up watching crap telly, Lily's head snuggled in her lap, thumb in her mouth. Maisy gave Arthur a little wink as he walked past.

He sat down on his bed again and looked over at the space where Eames had taken up residence whenever they studied in Arthur's room. Eventually, after he stretched out his sore muscles he picked up 'Wuthering Heights' to flick through again. Try as he might though he couldn't concentrate enough on the sentences, he just kept thinking about the characters Heathcliff and Cathy, how they loved each other with their entire beings _"I am Heathcliff! He is always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being". _He wondered what it was like to be completely enveloped by an all consuming love, like a fire, burned every second but unable to let go, he couldn't decide if it was romantic or unhealthy.

But then, he considered, just look how Cathy and Heathcliff ended up in the end.

_For the last two years I have suffered in my A level English class reading book after book on love (not even happy love, the dark, tragic, depressing kind that makes you yell 'IT'S BEEN 200 PAGES, DOES THIS THING EVER GET POSITIVE?!) and remembering quotes; most of which I ended up not even needing and that after the two hour long exam, were completely useless to me. So you have no idea how satisfying it is to finally use one of the many useless quotes in something other than my exams! Other people who have studied English, I share your pain!_

_Rant over :D Thanks for reading and reviewing and I'll post again soon._


	13. Where My Demons Hide

_Warning's in this chapter for detailed bullying._

Arthur broached the subject of Eames coming to Ariadne's party in one of their free periods, which they as usual spent in the serenity of the library.

"You invited Eames?" an odd expression came over Ariadne's face, and she cocked her head as if unable to believe what she'd just heard.

Arthur shuffled uncomfortably, feeling the gazes of both Robert and Ari burning a hole into him "Yeah, y'know if that's ok with you?" her face broke out into a wide smile.

"That's perfect! Because Yusuf asked if he could invite Dom and his girlfriend along as well! Do you guys realise this is the closest we've ever gotten to having a _cool _party" she squealed.

"This is the closest we've got to having a party at all" Rob interjected flatly

"Does Ari's fifteenth count?"

"You mean when we were sat on, and forced to watch the entire first season of 'Sex and the City" the two of them jointly shuddered at the memory "yeah I'm not counting that one"

"You guys are hilarious" she deadpanned "Anyways, my parents are out this weekend so we have the house to ourselves" she clapped her hands like some sort of weird, excited seal "this is going to be great!" the bell interrupted their talking, clanging loudly to signal the start of another lesson. The three of them packed up their stuff and hurried with the mass of people exiting their classrooms. This part of the day Arthur always associated with the image of the entire school acting like a school of fish, everyone going in the same direction as a group, jostling and shoving each other the entire time.

Sometimes that's what life felt like to Arthur, like he was just moving from one place to another, the same thing over and over again until it made him sick to think about.

Instead of going straight to his English class, he took a detour to his locker to drop off some of the heavier books in his bag. His locker was always easy to spot with the word 'fag slut' spray painted in bright orange, the first few times the cleaners had washed it off it just appeared again a day later and eventually they just gave up. The corridors were mostly silent so he was caught off guard when his hands were twisted behind his back, and a knee collided with his abdomen.

"Afternoon princess" a sickeningly familiar voice hissed in his ear. He tried to yell but a hand clamped across his mouth muffling any sounds, he thrashed Marco's hold kicking out as he was dragged roughly to the nearby exit, cruel laughter rang in Arthur's ears.

His heart slammed in his chest and he tried every way to escape, but each time he thought he'd gotten some leverage, the hold on him tightened further until it felt like the bones in his arms were being crushed. They got to the bleachers with Arthur still struggling desperately. Suddenly the pressure on his arms was released, and the hand disappeared from his mouth. He kicked the nearest attacker on the back of his knee and was rewarded with a grunt of pain, he grabbed at the ground to steady himself and scrambled up, if he could just get to where he could run, they would never catch him.

But his attempts were worthless when Arthur let out a yelp as hand grabbed his hair and yanked him brutally back, throwing him down on the ground at Marco's feet. The boys face was twisted into a nasty sneer, and his gaze was predatory as he, Nash and another jock who Arthur dimly recognised created a circle around him, cutting off any exit and leaving him at their mercy.

"I think you owe Nash a little apology for that don't you" Arthur didn't have time to roll away as Marco's foot collided with his already bruised abdomen. He gasped in pain, eyes pricking as he choked, and hunched in on himself to protect his body.

"What I want to know is what you've done to Eames" Marco purred menacingly "Ever since you started tutoring him he's gone all soft, won't even let us make a joke about poor little princess" he wrinkled his noise in disgust "Did you infect him? Turn him and, make him a faggot like you? Or does he defend your worthlessly ass because you do some _favours _for him?" he put particular emphasis on 'favours' and Arthur involuntarily shivered in fear. Marco grinned manically and delivered a swift and painful kick to Arthur's ribcage that made Arthur cry out.

"Marco let him get up" Arthur heard Nash criticise.

He could almost feel the anger radiating off Marco at Nash's interruption "What the fuck did you just say?"

Nash and the other jock shifted nervously, eyes down "Just seems wrong when he doesn't have the chance to defend himself" Marco laughed, a malicious and almost frenzied sound.

"He's never gonna defend himself anyway, that fag knows if he fights back, I'll kill him" Marco knelt down and grabbed Arthur's chin so he was forced to look at him and leaned right down into his face "That's right isn't it princess. Y'know if you try anything I'll kill you. Hell I'd be doing the world favour, getting rid of one more sick fag, no one'll care anyways, no one'll miss old 'Orphan Artie' the slut" he leered "Maybe I'll go and comfort your little friend Ariadne, she seems like she'd be gaggin' for it"

Arthur growled and smashed his head against Marco's, the other boy fell back with the force of it and Arthur took the opportunity to clamber up "Stay the fuck away from her!" he snarled so viciously that Nash took a step back before he and the other guy tried to help Marco up. Marco was still for a second, surprise written across his face, then Arthur blinked and a fist was colliding with his cheek. As he staggered Marco grabbed his throat and squeezed, his eyes slits as he spat at Arthur.

"You are going to regret that" Arthur froze with fear at the threat in his voice, his eyes were cold and hard, filled with a hatred that made Arthur more scared than he'd ever been in his life. Nash backed off slightly "Yo Marco maybe you should calm down"

He smiled cruelly, not breaking eye contact with Arthur "I'm perfectly calm, and I'm going to calmly break this fag's leg" he leaned towards Arthur, breath against his ear and Arthur strained his neck trying to get his head as far away as he could "Can't run track with a busted leg now can we" Arthur let out an choked sob and Marco hummed in satisfaction. He closed his eyes to painfully submit, resisting was so much worse, the jocks were untouchable thanks to this schools policy of turning a blind eye to their winning athletes. Hopefully it would just be over quickly.

There was a vicious snarl and suddenly the hand around his throat was gone. Arthur dropped to the floor gasping. He looked up to Eames standing protectively in front of him, fists raised and vibrating with anger, he looked at Arthur who could feel the wet stains of tears on his cheeks, and launched himself at Marco with what could only be called, an animalistic growl. Fists flew everywhere and both Eames and Marco's bodies became a blur of pained grunts and yells, Arthur could only sit there, frozen.

"Eames!" a voice yelled behind Arthur, and then he was being hauled up, Yusuf's face in front of him "Help me" he commanded. Arthur heard Eames yelp in pain and came back to his senses in a rush as he registered Eames was hurt; he and Yusuf grabbed the two as to drag them off each other.

Eames fought against Arthur's hold and once or twice Arthur's grip had slipped and Eames had jumped at Marco again. By the time they managed to get them fully apart Eames' lip was cut and bruises littered his eye and cheek. Marco had fewer injuries on his face but was practically doubled over coughing. Nash and the other guy were nowhere to be seen.

"If you ever touch him again it'll be the last thing you ever fucking do!" Eames roared, his voice hoarse "I swear to god Marco! I will fucking end you!" Marco spat at the ground in return.

"See if any college wants a losing team for their school! You can't touch me" he yelled back voicing Arthur's earlier fear. Eames growled low in his throat and re-launched himself, pushing against Arthur's bruised arms.

"Eames mate stop, you're hurting Arthur!" Yusuf yelled at his friend. Immediately Eames stopped struggling and whipped round just in time to see Arthur wince, his eyes were wide and his hair completely dishevelled, the cut on his lip was now bleeding profusely.

"What on earth is the meaning of this?!" Mrs. Cobb cried, striding out onto where they were gathered, immediately Marco straightened up, shrugging off Yusuf's hold.

"Just a football disagreement Miss" he smirked.

Mrs. Cobb huffed and narrowed her eyes at him "Why then, is Arthur bashed up as well then Mr. Ballaconi?" he shrugged nonchalantly

"Shouldn't jump in the middle of a fight miss" she didn't look as if she believed him in the slightest, when she looked at Arthur though he cast his eyes down. "Yusuf, take Arthur to the infirmary" the curly haired boy nodded "Marco, Eames, in the principal's office. Now!" she added when they didn't immediately move.

Arthur's was used to all this by now, occasionally Ariadne or Fischer would talk to the principal if the bullying got too bad - they recently stopped after he'd begged them – or he wouldn't be able to explain the bruises on his face to his aunt and she'd march down to the office looking for blood, once or twice a teacher had caught them, but Marco could usually explain his way out of it.

What he wasn't used to though, was Eames and Yusuf being involved. He sat in tensely in the infirmary next to the latter, unsure of what to say to the other boy. Right now Principal Saito was talking to both Marco and Eames together; Coach Saunders had walked past the infirmary a few minutes ago and given Arthur a dirty look, as if it was his fault Marco had decided to make Arthur the target of his aggression, before he'd strode down the hall to the Principals office.

Unease flooded Arthur's body and he started biting his nails, not knowing what else to do. Eames hated fighting, hated shouting, hated anything that resembled severe aggression. Arthur had _never _seen Eames like that, so angry that you could practically see his body shaking with emotion, sure he'd seen Eames annoyed, but never angry, never enraged like he'd been with Marco. He couldn't bring himself to believe that Eames might've just gotten more lax with his aggression than he'd been before, it just didn't seemed like something he'd do. He worried his nail, wondering anxiously what affect this whole ordeal would have on Eames.

"Has he ever been like that before?" Arthur asked. Yusuf's head shot up, momentarily surprised before his expression changed to one of discomfort.

"No" he admitted "I've never seen Eames go mental like that before. He doesn't like being angry, he deals with it on the football field defending his team mates or in some other way, but never hitting someone like that" the boy looked worried.

"Do you know?" Arthur asked outright, knowing that Yusuf would understand that he was talking about the abuse if Eames had confided in him.

Yusuf slumped down in his chair "Bits, he got piss drunk one night and blurted some stuff out, when I tried to talk to him about he just shut me down" he wrung his hands, something in his voice gave away that he was thinking the same thing as Arthur.

"You're wondering if how he's coping with it" he stated matter-of-factly, Yusuf nodded, "He's lucky to have you as a friend"

Yusuf huffed in amusement "And he's an idiot for letting you go" Arthur widened his eyes at the statement, wondering just exactly how much Eames had told him about the breakdown of their friendship.

"I have my theories about what happened between you guys" he continued as if he'd heard Arthur's thoughts "All I know for sure, is that I haven't seen Eames happier than he's been in the last three weeks with you back in his life" he looked Arthur directly in the eye "So even if he does something, monumentally stupid, please don't give up on him" Arthur frowned at the slightly venom in his tone.

"What do you mean 'if he does something monumentally stupid'?" for a moment something flickered in Yusuf's dark eyes, but then it was gone and he waved Arthur off.

"Just that you know how he does stupid stuff sometimes" his voice sounded weird "and that sometimes it can be monumental. Just general stuff"

"Right" Arthur was more confused than ever now.

"Um, this is slightly off topic" Yusuf added sheepishly "but I wanted to bring something with me to Ari's on Saturday, and I wondered if you knew what she'd like" Arthur laughed, relaxing and the two boys chatted about their mutual friend until the nurse came in and checked Arthur over. She was strongly for calling his aunt, but Arthur assured her that she wouldn't be home now anyways and it was nearly the end of school so he could survive another few more minutes. He waved goodbye to Yusuf and walked down the corridor to his lessons, the truth was, that had been an incredibly close call with Marco and the more people he was around (even ones who hated him), the safer he felt.

He had reached the door to his classroom at the same time Eames came out of the bathroom across the corridor, his lip had stopped bleeding, but a dark purple bruise was already quickly forming around his right eye. For a few moments the two of them just stared at each other, then Eames span and quickly stormed down the corridor.

"Eames wait!" he called out to Eames rapidly shrinking form "I—" but the other boy was already out of the front doors, not looking back once. Arthur stood rooted to the spot, one hand on the doorknob to his classroom, the other outstretched towards where Eames had been. After a beat he lowered his arm.

There was something Arthur hadn't talked about with Yusuf, something which had filled him with a mess of happiness, confusion and guilt which now more than ever, all swirled around inside him. It was the simple fact that, Eames had _saved him_. There was no other word for it. Eames, who for years had just ignored Arthur, who, was never a partaker in the popular crowd's regime to crush Arthur's spirit and exile him as a social outcast, but must've been somewhat aware that it was going on, had put himself in harm's way to help Arthur. A thousand questions plagued his mind, why now? Was the most prominent one.

But there was a part of him, a part that for the last five years wouldn't listen to the fact that Arthur loathed Eames with every fibre in his being. The part that he thought had disappeared after Eames so swiftly abandoned Arthur after the incident, and seemingly through him to the wolves, rejoiced.

He wasn't sure which emotion he preferred.

_I really wanted a chapter where Eames would help Arthur against Marco, I felt it someway redeeming for his part in the breakdown of Arthur's friendship and it made sense within the story. Marco also is all my hatred for homophobic people embodied and trust what goes around comes around and bites you in the ass. Thanks for reading and reviewing! :D_


	14. Don't Need to Talk About It

_Next chapter up, hopefully this will be a double update as I'm just tweaking the next chapter. Also yay 30,000 word mark :D_

That morning, before he could sneak off to his lessons he'd been called into Saito's office, a thing which he always dreaded for the simple fact that Saito cared too much to let anything go, it was a admirable quality but one that often landed Arthur in trouble at home or at school.

Now with the light filtering through the large window behind Principal Saito's desk, he almost felt like he was in an interrogation room, the seat under him was stiff and lumpy making him tilt left and right every few minutes. Arthur remembered the first time he'd been called into Saito's office, after Marco's first attack, that one he _had_ reported. Saito had passed him cool glass of water and sat in his large, push desk chair, frowning with concern. He'd promised that the issue would be resolved and that Marco was being placed on suspension, Arthur had felt relieved.

Then the next day had come, and he had to endure the fury of the football team for getting one of their best players suspended, Coach Saunders had treated Arthur like he was a dirty rat. It didn't matter about the bruises on Arthurs face and stomach, they saw him as a grass, some of them had cornered Arthur in the bathroom and 'taught him a lesson' about ratting on their friend.

When the football team lost their game whilst Marco was on suspension the school saw it as somehow Arthur's fault, they said Arthur had been asking for it with the way he looked down at people and ignored them, and when Marco had come back, he made sure Arthur remembered that ratting him out was a bad idea. The 'Slut' thing had just been another nail in the coffin.

So whenever he got called into Saito's office to _talk_, he did what he always did, feigned ignorance to the whole thing. No, nothing was going on, he and Marco had just had an argument, 'I just tripped', 'I pulled a muscle in track'. He had a whole litany of excuses ready, he felt like a coward every time he denied it, but the alternative was so much worse.

Today was no exception. From the moment he sat in Saito's office, he'd put on a blank face and just shrugged or muttered 'yes' or 'no' to any questions the principal asked him.

"So you're saying that the whole thing was just a disagreement between Mr. Eames and Mr. Ballaconi" Arthur nodded mutely.

"And what was this disagreement about?"

He shrugged "I dunno. Yusuf asked me for a hand pulling Eames and Marco apart, and I did, got in the crossfire a bit, nothing really" he tried his best to seem bored with the whole conversation, hoping that he could get away quicker. Saito sighed in disapproval, laying the pen he'd been using to write down Arthur's story on his large dark oak desk and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Mr. Reyes-Holmes" he began solemnly "This is not the first incident involving yourself and Mr. Ballaconi" he leaned forwards "Are you sure this was just a disagreement between Mr. Eames and Mr. Ballaconi?"

"That's what everyone's told you as well right" Saito shifted and Arthur knew he was right.

"Yes, that is the concurrence between all parties, but" he lowered his voice "I know the stress Coach Saunders places on his team, that the school places on it, scholarship and college entries hang in the balance as well as our pride as a school, and all the other parties involved in this incident are on said football team. They might've been persuaded to relay a different story" Arthur knew that he wanted to tell him the truth, that Marco was probably an insane menace when it came to Arthur, even when he played, the few times he'd seen before he was no longer welcome, he played with a ferocity, battering the other team if they tried to get close to him. He wanted to tell Saito that Eames had protected him, that he shouldn't be punished for helping Arthur, but as he looked into Saito's encouraging gaze, all he could see was Marco's face in his, the threats and his mind was already made up.

"Mrs. Cobb told you, it was Yusuf and me pulling Eames and Marco away from each other" he crossed his arms and scowled "I don't know what the fight was about, I just stupidly jumped in" Saito looked sadly at Arthur, the same way Mrs. Cobb did when he glossed over Marco's treatment of him, he couldn't stand their god damn pity in their eyes and grabbed his bag, standing up quickly "Is that all sir?"

Saito just looked at him for a minute, that same expression of pity on his face "Yes Mr. Reyes-Holmes, that'll be all" Arthur strode out the door without looking back. Unfortunately he didn't escape far; and nearly bumped into Ariadne as he turned out of the principal's office. She jumped up from her chair and grabbed Arthur's shoulders before he could get away; her lip was red where she'd been biting it.

"Arthur" she began, her hair was covering half of her face and her eyes were wide open and worried "The whole schools talking, apparently Marco and Eames got into a fight and you were involved" she pointed to the bruise on his cheek "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" he mumbled "Eames and Marco got into it and I just pulled them apart"

"Bullshit!" he started at her in surprised at the exclamation "I already talked to Yusuf, he told me what happened!" Arthur cursed Yusuf, and closed his eye at the pain behind his eyelids.

"Arthur" Ariadne shook him "Are you ok?"

"Shouldn't you be more worried about Yusuf" he muttered bitterly, Ari glared at him

"No offense to Yusuf, but you're my best friend and therefore my first priority" she looked hurt and angry, but Arthur still could hear the care and concern in her voice that made him glad she was his friend.

"What about me?" a voice piqued, Robert appeared behind Ariadne, a large bar of chocolate in his hand "Whose best friend am I?"

Ariadne tutted "Depends on who that chocolates for" her mouth was practically watering as she looked at it.

Rob eyed her suspiciously and tucked the chocolate protectively under his arm "Don't even think about it" he warned "It's for Arthur" he held the bar out to Arthur, who just stared at it for a few minutes, confused.

"You brought me...chocolate?" Rob nodded at him "Why?"

Robert shrugged, his neat brown hair falling across his forehead, eyes lighting up "I heard that it has some sort of chemical in it that makes you happier, and it seemed worked in 'Bridget Jones' Diary" he winked.

Arthur stared at the chocolate again, and without warning he began laughing shakily, he caught Ariadne's eye and the three of the burst out into uncontrollable laughter, it wasn't even that funny, it was just so very...Rob. He laughed until his chest hurt and the sides of face ached from smiling so widely, their laughter echoed down the corridors, to anyone passing by the would've looked like a bunch of crazy people, for some reason that made him laugh even more, everything had gone mental, and it was a little bit wonderful.

"If you three are quite done" Saito's voice yelled from his office "_Maybe _you would like to get to your lessons" they snickered together and rushed down the corridor away from the principal's office.

"Thanks Rob" he clapped a hand on the boys shoulder as he passed the chocolate "That did make me feel better" Rob grinned happily at Arthur, looking pleased.

"Yeah next time I'm down you my friend are coming straight to mine" Ari looped her arms round theirs, linking them all together "I haven't laughed like that in ages" giggled, she looked relaxed and content, her eyes shining.

Sometimes the thought would hit Arthur, that no matter what had happened, he was incredibly lucky to have friends like Rob and Ari, friends that bought him chocolate on the chance it would cheer him up, friends who would camp out in Arthur's living room just because he couldn't go on some dumb camping trip, who put up with his snarky behaviour and sarcastic comments. Nothing had really been resolved, but for a brief moment Arthur felt his chest fill with happiness.

The rest of the day was surprisingly quiet, even Marco didn't show his face much. The only thing missing was Eames' presence, he was nowhere to be seen in English and Arthur actually found himself missing him, recently he'd taken to texting Arthur during the lesson, nothing constructive, just stuff like

_I wonder if Mr. Dunn notices that one of his trouser legs is tucked into his sock? xD _

_-E _

Or

_Do you think that the poet whose stuff we're analysing ever looks down and thinks 'For fucks sake the curtains we're just fucking blue! It rhymed that's the only reason it's in there, god!" xD_

_-E _

Or

_Yusuf has just had the audacity to claim the Loc Ness Monster doesn't exist, currently not talking to him and giving him the evil eye across the desk._

_-E _

Or

_You should wear sweater vests more often! They look great on you, Ruby Masters behind me said and I quote 'Oh my god Arthur looks soooo cute' (I only exaggerate slightly O_O). Have you thought about waistcoats? ;)_

_-E _

Arthur would sometimes text back.

_Your interest in men's fashion is beginning to make me suspicious, concentrate on the lesson Mr. Eames, or I'll give you a quiz on it._

_-Arthur _

_You're not serious?! D: _

_-E_

_Deadly. _

_-Arthur _

_Slave driver xP_

_-E xx _

More often than not, Eames' texts made Arthur chuckle or snort slightly louder than he wanted and Mr. Dunn would give him the disapproving eye. That would prompt another text from Eames, who was always obnoxiously pleased with his ability to make Arthur lose concentration. Today though h couldn't concentrate for a different reason, that lesson and everyone after it, he covertly checked his phone to see if Eames had replied to his texts, but each time, the same 'mail box empty' message appeared. Arthur spent the day looking for a glimpse of that cocky grin, but it never appeared.

"Maybe he's looking after his mum again" he thought weakly to himself. He now sat there hoping Mr. Dunn would ask him to give Eames their work notes, but at the end of the lesson Yusuf darted to the front and asked for it himself quickly slipping out of the room once he'd gotten them. Arthur gathered up his stuff quickly and ran after him.

"Yusuf!" he called; the curly hair boy span round at the voice, but slumped when he saw Arthur there.

"Yes Arthur" he sounded a little tired.

Arthur opened his mouth, nerves fluttering in his stomach "I can take those notes to Eames" he ventured, but Yusuf shook his head.

"Eames asked me to post them on my way back, I have a car it's easier for me"

"Oh...right" he swallowed before he asked his next question "Is Eames...ok?" Yusuf sighed deeply and rubbed his temples, when he opened his eyes he looked haggard.

"I don't know Arthur, I really don't"

"Maybe I could go and see him" he offered, Yusuf shook his head again, curls bobbing around his face.

"Trust me he just needs some space to deal it. It's best if we all just give it to him" Arthur nodded, dismayed and toed the ground with the front of his trainer.

"Well...um..tell him that the invitation to Ari's is still open" Yusuf smiled for the first time at Arthur

"I will" he promised warmly "I'll be there either way, and so will Dom and his girlfriend"

"How's Dom doing with all this?"

"Trying to get the team to all get along, it hasn't been easy. He is Eames' friend but he's also basically the Captain, it's his job to keep everyone afloat" Arthur nodded, Dom was a decent guy.

"Anyway, I better get going, see you tomorrow Arthur" he waved behind him as he moved with the other students down the hall.

Instead of going straight home that day he went to the track, their coach had tried to get Arthur to go home the day before after seeing his injuries, but Arthur had refused, for the same reasons he was running today. It got Arthur out of his head, he didn't think about anything but running when he was on the track. Arthur relished the burn in his muscles as he pushed himself, kept going against the wind whipping at his arms and legs.

He ran and ran, only stopping for a two minute break where he needed to breathe. He kept going round and round that track, trainers slapping against the hard surface, the smell of cut grass filling his nose.

By the time he called it a day the light was almost completely gone, his muscles ached and he'd successfully distracted himself long enough to get out of his head. He was the only one left on the field and the whole space was pleasantly silent and serene, he felt relaxed as he made his way to the showers.

That peacefulness lasted until he was laying in bed that night and his thoughts turned to Eames, who still hadn't got back to him. Would he show up to Ari's tomorrow? And if he did what would Arthur say? Thanks for saving my ass? He groaned and rolled over, this was going to be a long night.

_I know this chapter didn't really feature Eames much, make it clear that he was struggling with his aggressive reaction to Marco and that he was having trouble dealing with it, this also meant avoiding Arthur, for another reason which will be revealed in the next update, woooo! Thanks for reading and reviewing you guys!_


	15. What a Lovley Way to Burn

_Miranda, Daisy, and Adrianna are based on real life models Miranda Kerr, Daisy Lowe and Adrianna Lima, Jan is based on the actress January Jones. Also for you science people, I am awful at science, the majority of my knowledge comes from the Big Bang Theory, so apologises if I mess up my science stuff, I blame myself and Wikipedia! _

Apparently work got around about Ariadne's 'party'. When Arthur showed up, running late after a disaster in the frozen isle at work, he had to do a double take to make sure he was at the right place.

Music poured out of Ariadne's usually quite house, all he could see through the windows was a sea of people. He had to push himself through a scantly clad group hanging around in the front doorway, inside the music was so loud Arthur could feel the bass of the music pounding in his chest and ears, there were people everywhere, a haze of bodies moving to the beat, paper cup drinks filled with brightly coloured liquids in hand.

A couple of girls stumbled past Arthur laughing uncontrollably, ones bright red lipstick was now smudged up her cheek, a beefy guy singing loudly and off-key to Flo Rida shouldered Arthur by accident when he was jumping up and down.

He recognised a ton of people from school, people who never would normally associate themselves with the three of them, from the cheerleaders to the A.V. club; it seemed everyone had heard about this party and invited themselves along. Ruby Masters, from English winked at him as he went past, then giggled to her friends, he supposed by a straight guy standards she was pretty, but with her inch think make up and huge hair, he imagined he would prefer Ari, and she didn't hold a candle to Eames.

He managed to struggle his way to the kitchen where two people were making out on the Ari's kitchen counter, they were so engrossed they didn't even notice Arthur press his was in, Arthur grinned, he was sure Ariadne's mum would think twice about bragging about how spotless her house was.

He grabbed a drink and went out again to find Ari, finding her in the corner huddled with Yusuf; the two were talking with their heads suspiciously close together. When she saw Arthur though she practically bounded up to him and grabbed his hands, swinging them in delight.

"Arthur how great is this?!" her voice slurred slightly "We're at a cool party!" he chuckled

"What happened 'Down with the Popular Regime'?" Arthur teased, she stuck her tongue out at him and pulled up a green dress, Arthur recognised from one of their trips to the shops, which flattered her petite figure, Yusuf seemed to notice this fact as well with the way he was staring at Ari.

"I'm forger...forgoin...who cares tonight, this is fun!" she laughed "Oh Yusuf I love this song! Dance with me" she grabbed a flustered Yusuf's hand and dragged him further into the living room, which seemed to have transformed into one of many dance floors.

Arthur leaned back into the corner the two had vacated to keep an eye on Ari, Yusuf looked a little unsure and nervous when she threw her arms round him and started wiggling her hips, but as the music went on and Ari continued to dance he seemed to relax and get into it. The way he looked at Ari, it was like she was the only other person in the whole world, when he finally got confident enough to put his hands on her hips they didn't leave that spot, the two just stared into each other's eyes.

Arthur felt like he was somehow intruding on an intimate moment, and after downing his drink went back to the kitchen to refill it. They couple had moved off the counter but there was now something even more disturbing in their place. Robert sat on one the counter, with what Arthur suspected was a cup of coffee in hand, surrounded by three tall and stunning girls.

"Ok, now I know this some kind of weird dream" he thought to himself "I've tripped somewhere and cracked my head. Yeah that's it"

Rob noticed Arthur staring at the group and waved at him to come over "Hey Arthur!" his voice was perfectly normal and Arthur could smell the coffee for sure now, the girls parted to let Arthur into the circle.

"Hey...Rob" he replied cautiously "Whatca doing?"

"Oh sorry where are my manners" Rob chuckled "This is Miranda, Daisy and Adrianna" he gestured to each to each of the girls who all gave Arthur a little wave "I was just explaining the difference between string theory and quantum loop gravity" he grinned.

There was no way this was a dream. Arthur was dead, yep he had to be dead, that or this was the apocalypse.

"Your friend is so smart" Adrianna praised softly, Robert beamed proudly at her, Arthur just gaped, open mouthed. This was the apocalypse that was the only explanation. He didn't think Robert even realised that he was being hit on by these girls!

"You guys understand what he's saying?!" he asked incredulously

"Of course" Daisy giggled as if it was obvious "We were just going over the Standard Model of particle physics, a summary of our current knowledge about the subatomic composition of the universe" Arthur had no idea what any of that stuff meant and could do nothing but gawk.

"Robert" Miranda purred putting a hand on his arm and blinking widely up at him "Can you explain the four fundamental forces to me again?"

"Certainly!" he declared, pleased. The girls tightened their circle to listen to Robert; Arthur took the opportunity to backed away slowly. A huge party being thrown at Ariadne's, that was odd, Rob debating science with stunning and intelligent girls; that was weird. He downed his drink again in response.

His brain was beginning to feel a little fuzzy and warmth pooled in the bottom of his stomach making him feel loose and calm. Alex had always taken the piss out of Arthur that it only took a glass of Sherry at their friend Hannah's baptism to knock him out cold. Arthur swirled the remaining few drops of liquid in his glass, he missed Alex. Brave, strong, loyal Alex. When their parents died he immediately took Arthur and dared any social worker to try and take his baby brother away, he'd been lucky to have people like Maisy and Alex.

Arthur shook his head to chase away those depressing memories, and left Robert to his unintentional wooing. The heat had now gotten uncomfortably stiffening, Arthur eventually lost battle with himself and removed his dark blue sweater vest, but his white loosely buttoned shirt still clung to his skin.

A hand suddenly pressed to his chest and a tall blonde girl Arthur didn't recognise from their school was in his space, flashing him a pair of baby blue eyes "Have you seen my...my boyfriend Dom?" she asked, words thick with drink

"No, I'm afraid not" she pouted at him.

"If you, um...you see my boyfriend tell him that" Arthur grabbed her as she began to slip to the side "you tell him that Jan wants to see him!" Arthur manoeuvred her to Ari's beige covered sofas.

"Jan, look at the state of you!" one of the girl's friends came over and Arthur felt it was safe to leave...Jan, alone. The world was getting...tippy for him as well, his limbs felt light and his head was swimming, for some reason he felt like laughing.

Arthur grabbed the banister for support and hauled his way up the stairs, gracelessly skirting round the couples huddled on there, he apologised more than once for stepping on someone's toe or hand.

He stumbled awkwardly towards the main bedroom, keeping his hand on the wall for balance as he almost tripped and fell through the door. The main bedroom had a balcony where Arthur could take a break from the heat and the music, as soon as he managed to co ordinate himself enough to get through the sliding glass door, he felt a million times better with the cool air licking his face and filling his lungs.

"Hi" Arthur shrank back to the far side of the balcony in shock, only to relax when he made out Dom's face in the shadows, huddled on the edge of the balcony casually smoking a cigarette "Sorry didn't mean to scare you" he apologised, embarrassed

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief "It's fine, my fault I didn't think anyone would be out here" Dom smiled reassuringly, and took a draw of his cigarette.

"Well as long as you're ok with me being here, do you mind if I close that door" he gestured to the one leading out onto the balcony "I'm just trying to avoid someone"

"Your girlfriends looking for you"

Dom gave him a look and pulled the door until it clicked shut, moving out of the view from the door. He took another puff, before passing it over to Arthur "Want some?" Arthur had never had a cigarette before, but with everything that had happened lately, he shrugged and plucked the cigarette from Dom's out stretched hand, taking a long draw and breathing it out slowly.

"You're a natural" Arthur smiled at the praise and handed the cigarette back to Dom, they chilled outside for a few minutes, passing the cigarette back and forth between them, Arthur was content with the silence, he and Dom hadn't had much interaction over the years, he was the golden guy of their high school smart and athletic, not the kind of person who would hang around with Arthur, but the guy seemed nice from afar.

"You're probably wondering why I'm being an ass and hiding here" Dom spoke into the silence.

Arthur shrugged as Dom lit another cigarette "None of my business" Dom hummed at his response and passed Arthur the cigarette.

"Have you ever loved someone who you thought could never really love you back?" Arthur was a little taken aback with the question, but recovered quickly; he debated on how to answer.

"Yes" he answered truthfully

"Its shit isn't it"

"Yeah, it is" he muttered wistfully and made to pass the cigarette back to Dom, the other boy declined

"Keep it" Arthur nodded gratefully, letting the smoke fill his lung, admiring the way it swirled in the air when he exhaled.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours" Dom offered, Arthur shrugged which seemed enough of an confirmation for Dom who took a deep breath of his cigarette before continuing "Y'know Miss Cobb?"

Arthur frowned at him "Miss Cobb?" Dom nodded

"Y'know she's not actually married, everyone just calls her Mrs" that was some new information, she'd never worn a wedding ring but Arthur had just assumed...

"How?" he ventured

"I started working part-time at her father's company a few months ago, a favour between our families; she drops by the office to see her dad a couple times a week. We got to chatting a while ago and she's just...just such an intelligent and kind woman Arthur. Beautiful, strong with a wicked sense of human to boot, even when she walks she has this air of grace all around her, so sophisticated, it's like she glides into the room. I guess I never really saw her when we were at school and that we started talking and connecting as two people and it's like everything shifted, I can't get her out of my head and it's driving me insane" Dom paused in the middle of his love sick speech to take a long drag from his cigarette.

"It's not even like she's in her 40's, the woman's only 21. But still..." he sighed "...nothing's happened and I'm pretty sure nothing _will ever _happen. I don't even know if she likes me back for christ's sake! This whole unrequited love thing sounds so romantic in all those novels, but in real life it sucks ass" he ended bitterly.

Arthur didn't know what to comfort him with, he'd been in the same position and all that happened was it got more painful until it'd felt like someone was trying to rip out Arthur's heart with a pair of tongs.

"I know I should break up with Jan" Dom continued "But I liked her before I met Malorie" _Malorie? _"And I just don't want to give up on our relationship because of wishful thinking. I keep hoping that this stuff'll go away and things will just go back to normal"

"They won't" Dom looked surprised at Arthur's comment "trust me, these feelings, they're not going to go away by themselves, all you'll end up doing is comparing other people to that person and they'll never ever be good enough" the expression on Dom's face was enough to confirm that, that was what indeed he'd been doing "It's not fair on your girlfriend and it's not fair on you"

"How do you get over that person?"

Arthur huffed in cold amusement "I'll tell you when I figure it out" he answered, undisguised resentment in his voice.

"Eames?" Arthur's silence seemed to confirm it to Dom as he nodded resolutely "I'll call a cab for Jan and me, maybe if she's sober we'll have a talk"

"She's not" Arthur confirmed

Dom pushed off the balcony rail, throwing his cigarette down onto the grass below, and put a warm hand on Arthur's shoulder "I would appreciate this if you didn't repeat any of this" his voice sounded a little anxious, so unlike the Dom he'd always seen in the corridors, confident hanging out with his friends.

"Ditto"

Dom nodded, squeezing Arthur's shoulder gently "You're a good guy Arthur"

"Likewise"

Dom smiled and let go of Arthur's shoulder, heading back inside where the party was going strong, the music pounded through the the glass door. Arthur stayed outside for a little while after Dom left; his head was still spinning with the combination of cigarettes and alcohol, plus the cold air felt good against his skin. Eventually though he did retreated back inside, still wobbling as he walked, in his alcohol fuelled mind he managed to rationalise that having one more drink might be a good idea. He stumbled down the stairs, the music had switched to changed to Ke$ha which now blasted through the sound system, what stopped the neighbours complaining he'd never know.

He had just managed to get out of the kitchen door, skirting round Rob and the whole enigma thing, when a familiar laugh hit Arthur's ears. Sure enough, there was Eames leaning against the couch, whispering something into some girl's ear which made her giggle and blush. Arthur felt an almighty rush of anger slam into his gut like a punch to the solar plexus, he wanted to pull that slut off Eames and punch the guy in the face. Arthur tightened his grip and almost crushed the drink he was holding, god Eames was so fucking macho and hetro, he was just like all those other bastards who made Arthur's school life hell.

Someone touched his side; Arthur was prepared to hit anyone at this point but stopped, startled when he saw Rob without his entourage, looking intently in Eames' direction.

"I am a great friend, just so y'know" Arthur stared at him confused , even more so when Rob grabbed Arthur's hand and pulled him further into living room/dance floor. For the first few moments when Rob began dancing against Arthur still didn't get it, but then he realised they were directly in Eames' line of sight and grinned at Rob's deviousness.

When he started dancing with Rob, his eyes still flicked nervously around, Rob bent in closer so Arthur could hear him over the music "Stop worrying, everyone's too drunk to care, now make that dumb, emotionally stunted jock jealous" Arthur looked around again and realised Rob was right, everyone was so drunk by this time they didn't take any notice of the two of them, they weren't even the only two guys dancing with each other, and he smirked, throwing himself into the dance.

He put his arms on Rob's shoulders, the other boy had a couple of inches on Arthur, Rob put his hands on Arthur's hips and they swayed their hips to the music together. Arthur turned, with Rob's hands on still on his hips and put his own hands on Rob's neck, rolling his hips and moving slowly low to the floor and back up again. He only paid attention to the beat of the music flowing through him, enjoying freedom from his inhibitions as he closed his eyes and moved with the bass, grinding against Rob. He did his best to ignore Eames, focusing on nothing but dancing.

Rob moved his lips down to Arthur's ear "Pretend I've given you a compliment" Arthur gave his best easy, lustful smile in response.

There was a snarl just audible over the music followed by a feminine noise of protest, and then Arthur was being wrenched away from Rob, who was now being pushed with a slam against the wall by a severely pissed off looking Eames. The people around them stilled, interest piqued at the chance of a fight. For a tense minute Eames just stood there, jaw and fists clenched tightly in Rob's shirt, breathing deeply. Eames snarled again and dropped Rob, marching out of the front door.

A tense silence followed his departure, broken by Rob "Sorry folks" he apologised loudly "He just had a bit too much" there was a titter of laughter from everyone and then they started dancing energetically again.

"Arthur..." Ari's voice at his side broke him out of his spell and he dived as fast as he could out of Ari's house in after Eames. He sprinted out into the cold night air to where the majority of the cars were parked and was relieved to find Eames' still there. When he looked around the deserted street he caught the familiar figure of Eames rapidly disappearing. Filled with a sense of déjà vu, except this time he wasn't frozen to the spot, he shot after Eames.

"Eames!" he called, the other boy made no indication he'd heard Arthur but turned off the road into the forest opposite Ariadne's block of houses. Arthur followed him quickly, with all his years of track and the fact that Eames was still speed walking Arthur caught him up quickly.

"Eames!" he called again, reaching out to try and grab the other boy to slow him down. Before he could Eames span round, grabbing Arthur's face with both hands and smashed his lips against his.

It wasn't gentle like Arthur had imagined in his room late at night their almost kiss would have been, this was almost brutal, it felt like Eames was trying to mark his lips, his hand wrapped possessively around Arthur waist, bringing them closer together.

At first Arthur's was so surprised he was motionless, his libido caught up faster than his brain did, repeating 'Holy fuck Eames is kissing me, kiss back you moron!' over and over again, until he got with the programme and threw his hands around Eames' neck returning the kiss full force, and running his fingers through Eames' hair.

Eames' growled in approval deep in his throat, and ran his tongue along the seam of Arthur's lips, he gave Eames entrance without resistant. For a moment their tongues battled for dominance until Arthur relented and Eames laid claim to Arthur's mouth with his tongue. The kiss was rough and uncoordinated, with teeth clacking, and noses bashing together, and it was the single most passionate kiss Arthur had ever received. Eames kissed Arthur like he was drowning man and Arthur was his oxygen, Arthur nerves set alight, his skin felt like it was on fire like he was burning up from the heat of the kiss, he was vaguely aware that he was making these desperate wanton noises in the back of his throat. Sober Arthur would've been horrified, but drunk Arthur couldn't care less and gasped when Eames ran his hand down the small of Arthur's back, the noises seemed to spur Eames on even more.

His back slammed into a tree, without breaking the kiss, Eames grabbed the backs of Arthur's thighs hoisted him up; Arthur wrapped his legs around Eames' waist automatically. He grabbed Arthur's hands and held them high above his head so Arthur was immobile; he pushed Arthur's back further into the trunk to keep him up and in doing so their clothed erection rubbed together, sending a spike of pure pleasure up Arthur's body, making him shiver at the feeling.

This brought both of them to their senses and Eames dropped Arthur suddenly, taking a step back. For a few moments they just stared at each other panting, Arthur was terrified in case Eames ran like he had, he wanted to make him stay so they could talk about this, he was ready for it now.

Eames looked completely ruined, lips dark red and puffy and his hair was all other the place, Arthur imagined he didn't look much better; Eames had never looked so gorgeous.

Abruptly as if seeing the fear on Arthur's face, Eames moved back into Arthur's space and gripped Arthur's hand gently "No running away this time" he explained, touching Arthur's cheek with his free hand.

Arthur was completely overcome with emotion; he blinked back tears when they threatened to fall and nodded, unable to form words past the lump in his throat. Eames wrapped his arms tightly around Arthur's body, which was shivering with more than just the cold, and Arthur returned the embrace, feeling the warmth of Eames own body seep into his skin. They stood like that for a while, two broken boys shivering in the night air, with the stars watching on.

_Aaannnddd finally the boys stop being idiots and kiss, they'll still be idiots but y'know for now they're cool :D Also I love jealousy scenes, so be forewarned in any future writing, they will defiantly be there ;) In my head Roberts bi, but this is as much Arthur kinda/Rob as it gets, and I really liked Mal/Cobb in Inception, y'know pre-crazy and how she appears it fics, nothing will happen with them whilst Dom is a student though (He's also 18). Thanks for reading and reviewing my lovelies, that was my first time writing a kiss scene so hopefully it's worth the read! _


	16. Your Hearts a Mess

_4 years ago_

It'd had been a cold day in August when most of the town gathered at St. Peter's church at 10:30 in the morning. Arthur had been helping a very pregnant Maisy out of the car that had picked them up from the house. Alex was packing backing through South America so it was up to Arthur to help Maisy whilst he was gone.

He held her hand as she stepped out of the car "Thanks honey" she breathed, tired dark circles had formed around her eyes and she was obviously strained, but his aunt still had a glow about that apparently pregnant women have, a stark contrast to the place they were in. She held his arm as they joined the large group of people all milling into the church, the cold breeze causing them to pull jackets and blouses tighter around them.

The scent of lilies perfumed the battered church, weathered by having stood for over a hundred years; the lilies decorated a large fine oak box at the altar. A large photo of a smiling man, with light brown hair and grey eyes was propped up to the side of the coffin, a sizable wreath with blue and white flowers woven into it decorated the edges of the photo.

A few days after Eames' father landed Eames in hospital, he and Katherine were in the car on their way to collect him, when a driver had swerved to avoid a deer forcing Katherine and her husband to turn sharply, a decision which had made them skid of them road and hurtled them down a hill where they crashed into a tree. The other driver had called 911 and the ambulance had rushed them off to hospital, but Eames' father had passed away on arrival, Eames sat patiently looking out for his parents in the waiting room, only to find his father had died and his mother was in A and E, as he had been a few days ago.

No one had heard or seen Katherine since she'd been given the all clear and driven back to their house, but Arthur noticed a camera man set up in the corner of the room. Arthur also hadn't seen Eames since his father's death and know sought him out among the pews, finding him at the very front on his own. Arthur wanted to race over to him and hold his best friend tightly in his arms, but he forced himself to lead Maisy towards the pew where Eames sat alone.

The boy stood up when he saw the two of them approaching, his arm was still in a sling but the bruises were covered by make-up, the sight mad Arthur angry. Everyone had seen The Cornel as the man with the American Dream, beautiful wife, athletic and intelligent son with the dream home. To them he was a pillar of the community, a man who commanded respect, who had it all, they never questioned what went on behind that 'perfect houses' door, didn't know or didn't want to get involved. There was no family from Eames' father's side still alive, and Katherine had pretty much lost touch with her relatives in. In terms of biological family, Eames didn't really have anyone.

Eames looked tired, as if all the energy and life had just been sucked out of him leaving a shell of the person he usually was, his hair was neatly slicked down, shiny with gel and he had obviously scrubbed himself clean, but there was nothing that could hide the heaviness of his shoulders, the emptiness in his expression, it made Arthur want to cry seeing his friend so broken.

"Eames" Maisy murmured softly, wrapping him up in a clumsy hug with her belly in the way, at fourteen Eames was already pretty tall and almost matched Maisy's height "If you or your mother need anything don't hesitate to ask treasure"

"Thank you" Eames replied when Maisy had let go "That means a lot" she kissed his forehead and went to sit down. The service began, Arthur didn't want to be anywhere near The Cornel's funeral, let alone sit right at the front during it, he had trouble keeping the bile down when the vicar began to praise "Derek Eames, for being such an upstanding citizen, for his generosity and compassion" but there was no chance of him ever leaving Eames to face this all alone.

When Eames' body began to shake, Arthur laced their fingers together and shuffled closer, Eames gripped Arthur's hand tightly and dropped his head onto his shoulder, when Arthur felt wetness on his shoulder he rested his head on Eames' and held him tighter.

Eames let go of Arthur's hand when they went outside to watch the coffin being lowered, but stayed close to Arthur's side, never straying more than a few centimetres.

The three of them stood together, Maisy's arm around Eames' shoulder, and Arthur's arm in his, as watched the body of Derek Eames being lowered into the ground forever, and filled with earth, marking his eternal resting place. It was a moment that Arthur had been hoping for, the Cornel out of Eames and Katherine's life forever, but as he looked on at the grave he was filled with a peculiar heaviness.

The funeral party dispersed after a while, until only Maisy, Eames and Arthur remained at the grave. Eventually Maisy apologised to Eames sadly, but they had to get back to the house. Eames nodded but otherwise made no indication of moving, Maisy squeezed his shoulder one last time before walking back to the car.

Arthur stayed with him for a moment, Eames stared at the grave transfixed, the wind messing up his hair and making it whip around his head.

"Are you coming?" Eames shook his head, not breaking eye contact with the resting place of his father "I'll leave my window open like always" he whispered Eames gave no response and Arthur reluctantly let go of his arm and turned from the grave, brushing Eames' fingers with his own as he did, and walked away from where the Cornel would remain forever, back to Maisy waiting patiently in the car.

That night Arthur sat up, listening and hoping for the sound of Eames climbing up the drain pipe, but for a long time it didn't come. At 3am Arthur's eyelids were beginning to get heavy as he fought to stay awake after the long day, he contemplated making a cup of coffee to keep himself going, when there was a tapping on the outside of his window.

The sound almost made him jump out of his skin, but he rushed over to pull the window up wider when he saw Eames' familiar face there. The other boy climbed through with a grace he'd perfected after many months of practise. He didn't say anything when he'd straightened up; instead he walked over to Arthur's bed and sat down cross legged on it. Arthur hesitantly joined him, looking into his friends face warily.

"Eames...?" he touched Eames' arm gently, he looked like he was sleeping walking, staring at something to the left of Arthur as if he was hypnotised by it. Arthur gently shook Eames' arm trying to break him out of whatever spell he was under, the longer he looked at Eames' face, so devoid of emotion, the tighter the iron rod clamped around his chest. "Eames?" he asked again, voice wobbling "Eames" he pleaded, composure crumbling, he tugged the other boy into a strong embrace, tears slipping down he cheek. Seeing Eames so empty, he couldn't stand seeing Eames so unhappy, it broke his heart.

Eames didn't respond for a long time while Arthur hugged him, but eventually, he brought his arms up slowly, crossing them across Arthur back. He felt Eames shudder deep within his body and deflate as if a deep breath had been the only thing keeping him upright.

"Arthur" he sobbed "I don't know what I'm supposed to do" he broke down into tears, sobs racking his entire body, Arthur hummed their soothing lullaby, stroking his hand through Eames' hair. As Eames came apart in Arthur's arms he rocked him through it, murmuring comforting words into his ear.

"My mum's a mess, it's just me and her all alone in the house and it...it's...I miss him Arthur! I actually miss him!" he chocked and gripped his hands in Arthur's nightshirt, nails scrapping Arthur's skin "He made me and my mum's life a misery and but there's a part of me actually misses him"

"It's ok" Arthur soothed into his hair. Eames pulled back sharply, a fierce look coming over his face.

"Don't you get it Arthur, _I miss him_! I miss the man who put me in hospital, who tyrannized mum and me for years and years, beating us if we didn't live up to his 'perfect' standards! How is that ok?! That's not normal Arthur! Don't even try telling me it is" Eames was yelling when he finished talking, Arthur sat opposite, calmer than he'd been all day, overcome with desire to stop the expression of self-hatred on Eames' tear stained face.

"He was still your dad Eames. I get it"

"No!" Eames shouted, pushing Arthur away and scrambling off the bed "Don't try and make this ok Arthur! This is not ok! What kind of person misses someone like that, even a little bit?! Tell me!"

Arthur stood up slowly from the bed, approaching Eames like he would a startled animal. Eames let out a chocked sob and collapsed to the floor on his knees, a hand covering his eyes "I don't want to be angry" he whispered "Please don't look at me like that"

Arthur knelt down and grasped Eames' shoulder "Listen to me" he said firmly "You are not your dad, you're nothing like that man" he spat.

Eames dropped his hand and just stared at the floor; his body had gone limp and was still shaking from the exertion "Yeah, I'm not like him...because he was strong. My dad was right" his voice sounded hollow, stripped bare "I'm just a freak who can't do anything right, mum always choose him over me and she was right to, no one could ever love someone as broken and as weak as me"

Arthur stared at him incredulously "You can't mean that" he breathed, unable to believe what he was hearing.

Eames met Arthur's gaze again, blue-green eyes shining with anger and shame "Of course I do Arthur! If my own parents don't love me why the hell should anyone else?! Look at me!" he gestured to himself harshly "I'm a stupid fuck-up who can't even throw a ball right! All I do is mess up! My dad was right, no one'll ever love me, all I do is take up space!"

"I love you!" he yelled back. It'd been Eames' conviction and obvious belief in what utter lies the Cornel had told him, which had made Arthur snap. He slapped a hand over his mouth when he realised what he'd just admitted, his eyes wide. Eames though didn't look up from the ground.

"Well of course you do we're best friends" he muttered quietly

Arthur dropped the hand covering his mouth and took a deep breath to steel himself up for what he was about to do.

"No Eames" he began tipping the other boys chin up so he could see the deep green-blue of Eames' eyes "I. Love. You" he put of all of the emotion he'd been suppressing, holding back because he thought it could ruin their friendship, into that one sentence, and he'd never meant anything in his life as much as he did those words.

Eames' eyes widened at the statement, his mouth open and closed in shock, before Arthur could second guess himself he pressed his lips against Eames in a rush.

When at first Eames didn't respond Arthur began to panic, what if he'd ruined everything just because he was an idiot and lost his head in the moment? But then Eames began to kiss back, cupping Arthur's cheek, and tilting his head.

The kiss itself only lasted for a few seconds but to Arthur it felt like the whole world stopped, everything focused just on the two of them.

When they pulled apart, tears were still falling from Eames' eyes some inexplicable emotion deep hidden within them, he wound his arms around Eames again and held him tightly, trying to pour all of his love for Eames into the point of contact.

They slept like that, wrapped up in each other, Arthur's head laid on Eames' chest, the smell of Eames' leather jacket and of just Eames himself lulling him to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning Eames was gone, this wasn't an unusual occurrence so Arthur didn't think about it much, still carried by the happiness in danger of bursting out of his chest. When he got to school that day he immediately sought out Eames. When he couldn't find him in any of the classrooms, or on the quad he resorted to looking behind the bike sheds where the rougher, older kids hung out, not really expecting to find him there.

He was therefore surprised when he caught sight of Eames' distinctive leather jacket among the huddled group, a cigarette protruding in between the fingers of his right hand.

"Eames!" he called out to his friend, the other boy turned, a cool smirk on his face, and took a draw of his cigarette.

"Hey Artie" he grinned. Arthur frowned in confusion, Eames never called him 'Artie' he knew how much he hated it. Eames walked over and clapped Arthur, hard on the shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" Eames' breath hit his face "Are you drunk?!" he asked, not believing Eames would do something so idiotic.

"Little bit" Eames giggled "Oh don't be a square Artie, we're just relaxing and having a good time, in fact why don't you help with that and run along" the guys behind Eames snickered at Arthur. He stared at Eames, the happiness in his chest rapidly died, replaced by a hurt that stung painfully in his ribs.

"Why are you hanging around here?" he hissed, Eames gave Arthur the once over and scoffed at him. He turned his back on Arthur to return to his 'new friends'. "Eames why are you being such a dick" he grabbed Eames arm, but one of the group – a older boy with a cut on his lip yanked Arthur's collar and threw him backwards, he yelped as landed with a hard smack against the concrete.

"Eames told you to fuck off man, so go" the guy who'd knocked Arthur stood over him leering "Didn't you hear me squirt, can you speak English or are you just an idiot?" he taunted, the rest of the group snickered and gathered round, all looking down at Arthur.

"Tell him Eames" the boy –who seemed to be the leader -pushed.

He looked at Eames, willing the boy to just turn around and laugh, claim this was all one big joke, Eames was nothing like these guys.

But his friend just stared at down at Arthur, the same odd expression Arthur had seen in his eyes the night before "Go, no one wants you hear fag" he agreed coldly and turned away from Arthur with the rest of the group, leaving Arthur on the ground watching his back as their friendship crumbled and Arthur's heart shattered into a million pieces.

Arthur didn't give up for a while that Eames might be in a bad way, that if Arthur stuck around, Eames would realise Arthur wouldn't give up on him that easily.

Then a month later, a few days before Maisy's due date, they got word that Alex had been involved in a kayaking accident. He'd apparently overturned and hit his head on some rocks, they'd taken him to hospital but Alex died after a few hours. Then Arthur had his own grief to deal with, he'd lost his brother, one of three people he loved most in the entire world. Who had taken Arthur in and put off his own life to take care of him, giving up on college and getting a job at their local mechanic's, he'd even shelved his dating life for Arthur, up until the moment the shop hired a pretty, red-haired secretary that he feel head over heels for.

Arthur had been best man at their wedding, a small affair at a registry office, with a few employee's from the shop and a couple of Maisy's friends; she'd run away from her household to live with her distant Aunt when she was sixteen and so no other family were invited. Maisy adored Arthur, and likewise. He'd been unsure when his brother had bought her back to the house they'd inherited from their parents and introduced her, in the end though, he'd wanted Alex to be happy and have his own life and tried extra hard to get on with his brothers new girlfriend, which turned out not to be hard at all. By the time they'd finished dinner, Arthur was completely won over by her cheeky sense of humour and warmth. It's not many women who would commit to a relationship at twenty-one where your boyfriend had a seven year old brother to take care of.

It didn't stop them from travelling; they took a week in Egypt here, a trip to India there, skydiving in the Grand Canyon, and white water rafting in Brazil. The two of them would regale Arthur with stories of their trips and promised to take him when he was old enough. The three of them made a home together, and when Maisy announced she was pregnant, the two of them had been ecstatic, Alex held his wife up and spun her around the room in joy, while Arthur looked on laughing happily. Alex's trip around South America was supposed to be his last, his inheritance from their parents had run out, as had Maisy's savings, and he was ready to stop and settle down to provide for his family.

Turns out it was his last trip, just not in the way they expected, nor the way Alex expected it seemed as he'd neglected to take out life insurance. For a while they managed to keep the house, but with the cost of a newborn baby added to the equation they were eventually forced to sell and move into a small flat. For a while Arthur ignored his grief, it was his responsibility to take care of Maisy and Lily. He took any job going from paper boy to shelf stacker; the townspeople knew him and looked over his age when they hired him. Between Maisy and Arthur both working they were able to keep themselves afloat, not that they didn't go without electricity and heat a few times.

Through everything though, Arthur still missed Eames. When he had a free moment in all the chaos, his mind would always wonder to his friend, Eames still basically ignored Arthur, when they got to high school they ran in different social circles, the whole football thing made Arthur an outcast, where Eames was adopted by the popular crowd and revered throughout the school. Arthur found Ari and Robert and Eames found his own 'happy little' group. From what he'd heard, Eames had gone a bit wild over the summer, but managed to calm it down when they got back to school.

Eames never directly bullied Arthur, but he didn't do anything to prevent it either. Arthur eventually realised that Eames had fully abandoned him and after the 'slut' incident in the cafeteria, Arthur began to direct all his hate and humiliation onto Eames with a burning passion along every jock and member of the popular crowd as well. He learned to put a tight lid on his emotions and told himself over and over 'just get through high school and then you can leave the bastards and Eames behind'.

It was only years after Eames severed their friendship that Arthur figured out what that look Eames had in his eyes when Arthur had told him he loved him and when Eames had just stared, it's the same one that Arthur saw a few times whilst they were in high school, whenever he did nothing.

It was fear.

_I debated long and hard on where to put this, but I think it makes most sense within the story to put it here. It took me a while to write this chapter, I kept being unhappy and scrapping it over and over again. Hopefully you guys like it, let me know what you think :)_


End file.
